XCOM TFTD: Ensign Rising
by Judders
Summary: In the midst of the Second Alien War, XCOM are finally making headway against the Aquatoids and Gillmen. But the aliens have a trick up their sleeve...
1. Chapter 1

XCOM TFTD: Ensign Rising

Chapter 1

"Barracuda One to base, I have the USO on scanners, estimated time to weapons range, ninety seconds."

"Roger Barracuda One, maintain radio silence from now until first engagement." The technician shut down his radio and blew up his radar screen, displaying two small dots converging on a large white spot. Behind him stood the commander-in-chief of XCOM, Admiral Igor Zhadanovich, alongside him were Colonel Maria Sharpe, sitting in her wheelchair, and Lieutenant Samuel Remmington.

"Is there any sign that the ship knows they're there?" Remmington was dressed for combat, his whole body except for his head encased in Aqua Armour, with his diving helmet under his left arm.

"Oh they know they're there," Colonel Sharpe was dressed differently from the others. Whereas Zhadanovich and the technicians wore blue overalls, with only the insignia on their epaulets to distinguish them, she was clad in a green army uniform, with her colonel's insignia on the shoulders. "They always know."

"That may be the case for Barracuda Two," Zhadanovich bent down to get a closer look at the radar screen, "but there's no way they can pick up number one, he's following in the wakestream just as we told him."

"Barracuda Two to base, I will have visual contact in five seconds." The radio seemed strangely crackly. Zhadanovich frowned. "Jesus!"

"What's wrong Barracuda Two?"

"It's no Heavy Cruiser, it's bigger, three decks from what I can see, asymmetrical. I'll send you the feed." The screen flashed up a blurry photo of a multilayered vessel, the glow from its huge engines almost obscuring it entirely.

"Call them off," Sharpe's voice was quiet but insistent.

"What?"

"Call them off! We weren't even sure if they could take down a Heavy Cruiser, god knows what this thing is."

"It's not that much bigger," Remmington said, "the sonic oscillator should still be okay."

"And what if it destroys Barracuda One before it can get a shot off, number two won't stand a chance with nothing but Ajax missiles!"

"Barracuda One is now within Oscillator range," the technician interrupted.

"Well we might as well try it," Zhadanovich said, and tapped the technician on the shoulder, "send them the authorization."

"Base to Barracuda, One you are cleared to attack, repeat, attack immediately."

The dots on the radar screen flickered as Barracuda One dropped down out of its sister ship's wake, giving itself a clear shot with the latest piece of alien technology, the sonic oscillator.

Straight away the USO changed course, heading for the Barracudas at a speed so fast it scrambled the readings. A thick beam of light streamed from the USO, and Barracuda One's dot vanished.

"Call off number two!" yelled Zhadanovich.

"It's too late," Sharpe sighed.

"Base to Barracuda Two, abort attack, get out of there!"

"It's no good!" the radio was almost inaudible, "it's closing too fast, I've got to try and take it down."

"Negative Barracuda Two, abort, abort!" The four humans watched as more and more beams of light streaked towards the dot representing Barracuda Two, the flying sub somehow managed to dodge all of them, until it had almost merged with the USO spot. The radio crackled in and out.

"Port thrusters hit... computer systems failing… releasing… missiles."

"He's launched all twelve of his Ajax," the technician reported.

"It won't do any good," Zhadanovich shook his head, "it wouldn't matter if he had a hundred missiles, they won't even dent the hull!"

"I'm hit!" Barracuda Two's dot started flickering, its depth meter plunging downwards until it stopped at 534m, the depth of the sea.

"It's still registering on the radar," Remmington said, "at least that means the reactor is still operational."

"Yes, but look at the USO!"

The alien sub was circling the area, appearing to be preparing for the kill. Then, suddenly, it too started flickering, its depth reading dropping only slightly slower than the Barracuda's had. Finally it stopped at 540m, just a few clicks from where Barracuda Two lay.

"My god," the technician stared wide-eyed at the monitor; "he got it." Zhadanovich was the first to snap out of the shock.

"Sound the amber alert. Lieutenant, get down to Triton Four and deploy, immediately!"

"Yes sir," Remmington almost ran out of the sonar room. Zhadanovich turned to Sharpe.

"You'd better get over to tactical."

"Yes Admiral," Sharpe spun round on her wheels and rolled away. Zhadanovich couldn't help but be impressed by how quickly the seventy-year-old colonel could move in the wheelchair.

The Admiral turned back to the sonar technician, whose name was James Riley. He was one of five on MED ALPHA, XCOM's floating base in the Mediterranean, and all but one of them was milling around the sonar room. He knew the missing one would be over in tactical, helping Colonel Sharpe set up. The sonar module was the heart and soul of the MED ALPHA base. Sure enough without the living quarters and storage modules they'd never get any recruits, and without the sub pens they'd never be able to strike back at the aliens, but without the sonar module they would be blind, which was what Zhadanovich feared the most. Like the other officers he had an office in the living quarters, but he and they spent most of their time in the sonar module.

For just a moment, Zhadanovich turned his thoughts to the pilots of Barracuda One. Like its sister ship, they consisted of one Navy and one Air Force officer, a combination with just enough skill to control the rapid but erratic prototype submarines. They had been with XCOM since the start, and up to now they had not lost a single Barracuda. This was mainly because up to now they had only dared to engage scout craft, but that didn't make the Admiral feel any better.

He was snapped out of his melancholy by the announcement that Triton Four had left its sub pen. Unlike the Barracuda crews, the aquanauts that manned the troop transport had a very high turnover. It wasn't unusual for them to lose half of the ten-man squad on a successful mission, and unlike the Barracudas they had already lost three Triton craft for the simple reason that everyone aboard had been wiped out in battle.

Of the forty seamen who had originally been recruited by XCOM, only three remained. Remmington, who had risen to the rank of Lieutenant, and two Ensigns, Henri Dreyfuss and Louis Dujardin. Usually, one of the officers would command a Triton mission, with nine Able Seamen or Seamen and one tank. However, due to the extreme danger of attempting their first strike against a large alien ship, Zhadanovich had ordered that Remmington and Dreyfuss both be stationed on the Triton. Normally he would have sent eight Able Seamen along as well, but circumstances had mitigated against it.

The previous mission had been a disaster. The lab boys had just completed a full batch of Aqua Armour for the first time, and with the aquanauts now fully trained in the use of alien sonic rifles and sonic cannons it looked like they were finally getting the upper hand over the Gillmen and Aquatoids. When an alien terror ship launched an attack against a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico aquanauts had actually been volunteering to go.

Then they had landed. Instead of thin skinned Gillmen and predictable Aquatoids they had faced giant, lobster-like creatures, with a shell so thick even sonic rifles were useless, and accompanied by floating drones whose weapon was a sonic scream which burst your eardrums just before it scrambled your brain. They had lost five men clearing the upper deck alone, three of them dying when a Bio-drone self destructed after they finally managed to shoot it down. By the time they had cleared the holds the only aquanaut still alive was Ensign Dujardin, and he lost an eye in hand-to-hand combat with the final Lobsterman. Every single civilian on the ship perished.

This was a massive blow to morale. Before the mission, all of the twenty strong garrison who weren't officers were Able Seaman, aquanauts who had been on at least one mission. Now there were only seven Able Seamen left, and with Dujardin injured he had been required to send one fresh faced rookie out on the recovery mission. They hadn't even been able to get a tenth set of armour for the chosen girl, Tatyana Samsenko. She would go into battle in a scuba suit.

The world map, which covered most of the sonar module's port wall, showed the location of the downed ships, two hundred miles west of Gibraltar, as well as the approaching Triton.

"How long until they arrive?"

"About half an hour."

"Sound the blue alert when they're five minutes away, I'm going down to the labs to see Dr Faustaus."

To get to the laboratory module, Zhadanovich had to traverse the floating connecting gangways. As he wobbled and swayed, he wondered how the hell Sharpe put up with it.

After searching the endless research bays and laboratories, paying particular interest to a half dissected Deep One corpse, he learnt that Faustaus was in Alien Containment, the next module along, meaning another trip down the gangways.

Alien Containment was little more than a prison. An eerily silent prison. The top deck was full of rows of tiny cells, where captured aliens sat, usually motionless, force fed through a surgical tube because they wouldn't accept nutrition any other way. It was down below, in the experimentation area, where the fun happened. Zhadanovich just thanked his lucky stars that the experimentation in the last alien war hadn't resulted in human rights being extended to captured aliens. Such was the paranoia of an escape that there were four guards on the single entrance to the containment facility.

Zhadanovich reached the centre of the module and climbed down a ladder through the tiny access port into the lower deck. He emerged in the control room. This provided the only access door to the containment area, which was a triple airlock constructed of the hardest compounds known to man. Beyond it was a series of experimentation rooms, including a shooting range where unwanted specimens were blasted with weapons to test their resistance.

The entire setup had been designed by Dr Faustaus, XCOM's scientist-in-chief. He was particularly proud of his method for moving the aliens around. They did not leave through the front doors of their cell, instead they were gassed and electrocuted until they fell unconscious, then they were dropped through a trapdoor in the floor of their cell. A research team would then drag them to whichever experimentation room was required. When the experiments were over, they would be either winched back up through the trapdoor, or taken to the shooting range.

Zhadanovich had only been beyond the airlock once, during Faustaus' tour at the module's activation. The doctor had crammed as much into the lower deck as he could, with the result that it was extremely claustrophobic. The corridors were barely shoulder width apart and the rooms had more square metres devoted to equipment than to floor space.

Faustaus was alone in the control room, sitting at a console with his eyes glued to the hundreds of monitors. It was possible to view every inch of every room in the module, but the doctor's gaze was focused on one room. Inside four scientists were working away on a Deep One, the only one they had ever captured alive.

The creature was in a bad way. The new Aqua Armour was derived from the compounds in its shell, and during the research its entire outer layer had been stripped away. Now the scientists had opened up its head and were poking about with needles and scalpels. Zhadanovich guessed that only the heavy titanium restraints prevented it from showing its displeasure.

"Hello Igor, I hear we've landed ourselves a big one," Zhadanovich suspected that, like all the scientists, Faustaus longed for a chance to go out into the field.

"Barely Toby, barely. Barracuda One was blown out of the water, and the USO only crashed because Barracuda Two went on a suicide attack."

"God," Faustaus though for a moment, "What, so it went down with Ajax? That shouldn't be possible."

"He released all twelve missiles at close to zero range, must have got lucky."

"Very lucky, I'll be wanting a full schematic of that ship wreck to see exactly how they did it. How did the sonic oscillator cope before it was destroyed?"

"We don't know, it never got a shot off. The USO blasted it as soon as it left number two's slipstream. It must have known it was there, and what weapons it was carrying."

"I wouldn't be surprised, from the results we're getting with the transmission resolver, alien sonar technology works down to the molecular level. Once we get it up and running we'll be able to achieve a 100% detection rate on all types of USOs within range, we'll be able to see how many and what type of alien is aboard, and we'll be able to see its mission and destination."

"So we'll finally have an underwater hyper-wave decoder," Zhadanovich sat down beside Faustaus. "Why have you got this guy open again? More armour research?"

"No," Faustaus looked grim, "Robbins spotted something during the dissection of one of the Deep One corpses so we thought we'd take another look at this guy. It seems the aliens do have Psionic ability."

"What!" Zhadanovic jumped up, "you assured me that there was no evidence of that!"

"There wasn't, because this is a much more advanced method of Psi control. It's not big implants controlled by Ethereals. Gillmen control Deep Ones on a molecular level, almost nanotechnological. We've just located the part of the brain where we think the transmitter is housed. I've got some of the boys to reverse engineer an alien artefact that might be their equivalent of the Mind Probe."

"What are the implications of this?"

"The same as Psionic," Faustaus shrugged, "our troops could be influenced to panic, go berserk, the weakest ones could even be mind controlled. The principle behind this is completely different though, I don't think any of our research or equipment from the First Alien War will be compatible."

Zhadanovich gave out a short, hollow laugh that echoed up through the module.

"It never is. Why haven't we seen the aliens use this yet?"

"Maybe they only use it to control their terrorists, not as an offensive weapon. Or, if it's like Psi, then maybe the aliens we've seen so far are too low-level to be allowed to use it."

"If this 'molecular control' is that similar to Psi, does that mean we can weaponize it?"

"Almost certainly."

"How long until the transmission resolver is online?"

"About a day, the module's all set up, all we have to do now is install the equipment."

"Then in twenty-five hours I want every single scientist on this base to start work on offensive molecular control. From what Sharpe's told me about the First War, we left the Psi research too late and it nearly cost us the Earth. We can't make that mistake this time."

"No sir."

Every light in the room flashed blue, and a droning klaxon sounded for five seconds.

"Blue alert," Zhadanovich stood up to leave, "you might want to patch into Tactical, Triton Four will be touching down in five minutes."

"Will do."

Maria Sharpe was not happy. Hooked up to the gigantic command console in the sonar module's tactical room, she was alone, eyes focused on the display before her. Sharpe had been a hero of the First Alien War. Amongst the first of the XCOM recruits, she had survived to the end, ranking behind only the General and Commander Nash. She had commanded Alpha Team, the most successful of the original XCOM's three strike teams, and when Nash was killed exiting the Avenger on Mars she had led Charlie Team's attack on the alien stronghold beneath Cydonia.

Chosen for their superior Psi resistance, even Charlie Team couldn't survive deep within the alien fortress, as the Alien Brain panicked and controlled them until one man managed to break into the inner sanctum and desolate the alien consciousness with a well placed blaster bomb.

Deep down, Sharpe had always felt it should have been her. It had been the third fire team who had located the Brain, but by then they had already turned on each other and there was only one undergunned squaddie left. Sharpe's team had been next in line to attack, and the Blaster Launcher had been on her shoulder when she was struck down by a blast of Psi, and her own team panicked around her. Eventually the second fire team, led by Sergeant Victor Zhadanovich, the Admiral's father, managed to finish the job.

The strength of the Psi attack had given Sharpe severe brain trauma, and a recurrence back on Earth paralysed the left side of her body, consigning her to a wheelchair. Despite being touted as a hero along with the rest of XCOM, all the British Army could offer her was a ceremonial position, and Sharpe retreated into obscurity for the next forty years. Now she was back.

"Tactical to Triton Four, amend your trajectory, you're drifting too far east!" Sharpe had done what she could with the limited information available on that part of the sea bed and picked a landing spot, but Remmington didn't seem to be heading for it.

"The currents are too strong, they're pushing us away!"

"Goddamit Lieutenant! Use the boosters!"

"This close to the bed?"

"If you don't you'll land on top of the damn thing! They'll shoot you as soon as you leave the ship!" Sharpe saw a flash of panic in Remmington's eyes. All ten squaddies and the Coelacanth tank were equipped with a mounted camera so she could see exactly what they saw, and at that moment Dreyfuss was looking straight at the Lieutenant. The eleven images were arranged around the top three sides of the main screen in front of her. This showed a map of the area, which at the moment was blank, aside from two markers showing the positions of the downed USO and the crashed Barracuda. From the survey charts, Sharpe knew that the Barracuda was near the edge of a deep ridge, and that there was probably a rise between the two ships.

Her landing position was near the Barracuda; this was for two reasons. Firstly, if they landed near the stricken XCOM vessel then they wouldn't have to send a separate team to secure it. Secondly, in that position the rise would block the view from the USO, lessening the chances of the aliens picking them off as they deployed. But because Remmington's hesitation meant it was now too late to use the boosters, they were going to land right where she thought the top of the rise was. Like sitting ducks!

Aboard the Triton, Tatyana Samsenko felt naked. Her flimsy scuba suit looked pitiful next to the thick Aqua armour of the other aquanauts. She could only hope that they wouldn't make her go out first. The Triton thudded down onto the sea bed. All ten aquanauts stood in silence as Sharpe ran the sonar sweep.

The Triton's sonar gave her a rough map of the area. It wasn't very detailed, but it was enough to see that she had been right about the Triton landing on top of the rise. The terrain looked very flat, with no structures and little in the way of weed. Nowhere for the aliens to hide, but nowhere to provide cover for them either.

"Okay Alpha Squad, due to the altered landing zone, it is going to be necessary to split into two fire teams, team one of eight, team two of two plus the tank. Team one will make the initial deploy, then form a skirmish line half a click across and advance on the USO. Team two will deploy afterwards and secure the Barracuda.

"I'll take team one," Remmington squeezed his way towards the double exit doors. "Ensign Dreyfuss, take team two. Samsenko, you'd better go in that one."

"Agreed," Dreyfuss moved to the back of the transport to stand next to the rookie. "The aliens have never made it two clicks out after being shot down, not in thirty minutes. We'll be okay. Let me know if you need sniper cover."

"That's not going to happen," Sharpe snapped over the microphone, "check your map Ensign, you'll be on the wrong side of the ridge." Dreyfuss didn't reply.

Sharpe watched on the screens as fire team one went through the well rehearsed routine of disembarking the Triton. They came out two at a time, a legacy from a mission where five rookies had been butchered in a grenade blast two paces away from the exit hatch. Remmington was out first, back to back with Guido Curtis. The Triton had come down with the exit hatch facing towards the USO, so they just had to march down the rise and take up their positions at the base, fifty metres apart. Even with their night vision on maximum, both they and Sharpe could only see about one hundred metres ahead.

Something blue flicked on Curtis's screen. Sharpe had zoomed in on it in a second.

"Guido did you see that?"

"What?" Sharpe zoomed right in, just in time to see a greenish shape, about half the size of a human, disappear into the gloom.

"Looks like an Aquatoid." There was a laugh from Remmington.

"Thank god for that!"

Aquatoids were the little green men of the alien races. They had been the first undersea race to be encountered and, despite still terrorizing the civilian population, their unarmoured hides were a welcome sight to an XCOM strike team. They didn't even seem to have their own variant of murderous terrorist, like the Gillmen's Deep Ones or the Lobstermen's Bio-drones.

Remmington thought his partner looked like he was shaking.

"Okay Guido?"

"Yeah fine, just feel a little…" The Lieutenant noticed another blue flicker up ahead. Before he could raise his own weapon a green beam of sonic shot overhead, hitting right where he had seen the alien.

"Good shot Rudi!" Sharpe had obviously zoomed in to confirm the hit. Remmington turned round to see the next two aquanauts halfway down the rise. As per normal procedure they took his and Guido's places and they moved further out. This continued until all eight of the first fire team were in a long skirmish line, with Curtis at the far north, and Remmington at the far south.

Sharpe could see nothing in the screens; they were too far from the USO to even see the outline.

"Second fire team, deploy. Don't forget the recovery buoy."

"Affirmative." The tank rolled out first, skirting round to the other side of the Triton to make sure it was clear. Then Dreyfuss and Samsenko went round on opposite sides of the ship.

There was a reason for Dreyfuss' curt tone towards Sharpe. His uncle had been Captain Bernard Dreyfuss, 2 i/c of Alpha Team during the First Alien War. Despite his low Psi Strength, he had been taken on the Cydonia mission. He and Sharpe had been the first to reach the elevator pyramid that led into the alien fortress, but once there he had been taken over by the aliens' Psi technology. Sharpe had shot him in the back without a second thought.

Henri Dreyfuss had not been born until ten years after his uncle's death, but the legends of the First Alien War were well known, and the Dreyfuss family still harboured a resentment towards Sharpe for not trying to stun him instead. Since Henri had been recruited, not long after the start of the Second War, he had not spoken to Sharpe apart from over the radio.

Sharpe was more concerned about the fact that the sonar sweep had not detected the presence of the ridge, which she knew was nearby. She relayed this information to Dreyfuss and Samsenko as they paced towards the Barracuda, keeping a good distance from the Coelacanth tank as it scouted ahead, partly controlled by Sharpe and partly by its own computer systems. At the start of the war the Coelacanths, with their heavy armour and near 100% accurate weaponry, had been indispensable, but now they were mainly used as scouts by the heavily armed aquanauts. However the seamen still managed to hold them in some affection, particularly if their actions happened to save a human's life. The one ahead of Dreyfuss and Samsenko was the longest-serving yet, this being its tenth mission. Its armour was covered with scratches indicating the number of aliens it had killed.

Once the Barracuda appeared in the tank's field of vision, Sharpe ordered the first team to advance. It would be a slow process, in such open terrain they couldn't take any risks, and with any luck the Barracuda would soon be secured and the second fire team could join the skirmish line.

"How's it looking team two?"

"Er, not good," Samsenko sounded extremely nervous.

The tank's view screen showed why. The Barracuda had not only landed near the ridge, it was right on the edge. The nose of the ship was way out over the abyss, with only the weight of the rear engines stopping the whole thing from tumbling over the side.

"Get to securing it fast," Sharpe snapped, "if the reactor's damaged then it might not survive a tumble like that!"

"Good thinking Colonel," there was just enough sarcasm in Dreyfuss' voice. He and Samsenko came right up to the Barracuda's engines, leaving the tank to keep watch over the surroundings.

"She looks intact," Samsenko spoke; her voice had lost its shakiness. "The crew have diving gear right?"

"Yes."

"So where are they?"

"Probably shitting themselves. If I was dangling over that thing I wouldn't move an inch!"

Samsenko had been dragging the huge backpack that held the buoyancy kit behind her, and she dropped it to the ground. Dreyfuss was examining the Barracuda.

"I can walk along the top of the ship, drop down into the cockpit and see what the damage is." Samsenko looked around at the barren seabed.

"There's nowhere to tie the guide ropes."

"We'll use the Coley." As if hearing this the tank rolled over to them. "Give it just enough power to counteract my weight." Samsenko guessed he was talking to Sharpe. She attached both guide ropes to the back of the tank, then fastened them to the Barracuda. The tank rolled about twenty metres away, ready to brace against Dreyfuss' weight.

The Ensign climbed up the ship's engines until he was standing on the hull, then started walking down towards the cockpit. Behind him, Samsenko started attaching the recovery balloon to the ship.

The Barracuda's entrance hatch was on the side of the ship, right at the front. To get in, Dreyfuss slung his sonic rifle over his back, lay on the hull and leaned over until he could open the airlock upside down, trying not to think about the thousands of black fathoms beneath him. Once it was open he climbed down and shut the door behind him. To his surprise the airlock started draining the water automatically.

"Looks like the cabin is still pressurized." He glanced down at the panel beside the inner door. The buttons were lit. "And the power is on."

"Okay, proceed with caution."

"Yeah yeah."

Dreyfuss didn't bother to grab his rifle, as soon as the airlock had drained he opened the inner door and walked into the cockpit. He was nearly sick inside his helmet. The place was untouched, all computer displays were operational, the lights were all on.

The bodies of the two pilots were on the floor, unrecognisable. They had been battered to a pulp, their innards smeared across the metal floor. There was a flicker in the corner of Dreyfuss' eye.

The Ensign's blood curdling screams were not what the first fire team needed to hear. The normal procedure for USO assaults was for the skirmish line to encircle the downed craft, picking off any aliens on the outside, and then enter, preferably through a hole in the hull made by Barracuda weapons.

This USO was so large that Sharpe soon realized that encircling it would leave every single aquanaut isolated, easy pickings even for Aquatoids. Instead she had ordered the team to split in two. Four would stay back and provide sniper cover and four would edge around the craft's hull, using it as a cover until they found a way in.

Remmington led the scouting four in an anti-clockwise direction around the ship, and as the entrance was on the north side they pretty much had to encircle it anyway. They only came across one more Aquatoid, standing alone beside the entrance, and four sonic beams soon took care of it, allowing them to form up either side of the entrance hatch, which was on the first floor of the ship, accessible only up a flight of stairs. Once the scout team was in position, the snipers moved up to cover them as Remmington prepared for the attack.

"Okay," the Lieutenant removed a sonic pulser, the humanized version of the alien grenades that had proved so deadly at the start of the war, from his belt. "I'm going to throw a grenade through that door, if there's any Aquatoids waiting for us on the other side, they'll be dead before they can scream." Remmington activated the grenade, oblivious to Curtis raising his plasma rifle. Nobody could see the emptiness of the Able Seamen's eyes as he pulled the trigger.

"Aghhh!" Remmington doubled over as the beam tore through his armour and into his abdomen, his suit depressurizing around him as his diving helmet shattered.

"Guido what are you doing!" The other two aquanauts jumped on Curtis, trying to wrestle the rifle from him as their Lieutenant writhed on the sea bed. It was then that Dreyfuss' death screams pierced the radio waves.

The sniper team couldn't believe what they were seeing. Rudi Brehme yelled into his helmet.

"Colonel, what the hell's happening!" Sitting in the tactical room, Sharpe knew exactly what was happening.

"Psi control! Curtis's been Psi controlled. Shoot him!"

"Psi control? But Colonel…"

"Now!"

The three aquanauts were still fighting, and Brehme brought his rifle up to his eyeline.

"Shit, which one is he?" Jason Tarantino, one of the other snipers, suddenly had a thought.

"What happened to the grenade Sam was holding?"

Brehme just had time to yell 'get down' before the sonic pulser exploded, vaporizing the four struggling aquanauts and blowing the entrance hatch back into the ship. The sniper team were thrown back ten metres, but all four of them instinctively fired straight into the open hole, hoping to hit anything that had survived the blast. Twenty sonic beams had streaked into the ship before Sharpe called a halt.

"Ceasefire! Form a defensive position and place your primary weapons on the ground!"

"What?"

"Able Seaman Brehme are you aware of the implications of Psionic technology?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Then you will obey my order immediately. If any you pick up your weapon without stating the month of your birth the others are to shoot them immediately, is that clear?"

"Yes Colonel."

"Able Seaman Brehme you are now in command of this mission."

"Thank you ma'am."

Sharpe turned her attention to the lone rookie.

"Seaman Samsenko please report." Samsenko was perched on the edge of the ridge, praying that the tank would watch her back.

"There's something in there Colonel."

"I am aware of that, keep that entrance covered. In the meantime I will be… look out!"

It was the tank that saved her. It had rolled in to investigate some movement on the other side of the ship, and was just close enough to burst into the space between the rookie and the charging alien. It was a diving suit, human in appearance except for the blank glass where the face should have been, the speed with which it moved, and the huge steel claws emerging from the arms.

Samsenko turned round just in time to see it crash into the tank, its steel claws mangling the tracks on the right side as it pummelled away at the fresh obstacle. Suddenly it seemed to realize its true prey and jumped over the tank almost too fast to see. Samsenko didn't aim, she just fired.

When she opened her eyes the creature was lying on the floor, still alive, but thrown back out of harms way by the sonic blast. It thrashed wildly as green ooze leaked from the rip in its suit. All the extra movement seemed to just make it leak faster, until all that was left was a cloud of green floating over an empty diving suit.

"Good shooting."

"What the hell was that?"

There was no answer from her earpiece. Samsenko glanced down at the left side of her diving suit. It was torn open, exposing twisted electrical circuitry. The creature must have missed disembowelling her by millimetres.

"Come in Samsenko, I have lost you on visual," the radio was obviously only working one way. "Shit." The young rookie cursed in her native language and turned back towards the Barracuda, which was now wobbling slightly. She was just in time to see a second yellow diving suit come clambering out of the airlock…

Back at the downed USO, Brehme and his team had surrounded the gap in the hull where the entrance hatch had been. It took four sonic pulsers before they were willing to enter.

The grenades had done their work. The first floor of the ship was simply a series of gantries overlooking the bottom deck, and three dead Aquatoids lay slumped over the railings.

"Keep sharp." The four men edged round the perimeter of the ship, their eyes searching for movement on either of the visible levels. From what they could see, the lower level housed the engines at the rear and a vast cargo bay at the front. And they could see most of it, because whatever was down there had obviously detonated on impact during the skirmish with Barracuda Two, taking the engines and most of the walls with it. Apart from the indiscriminate Aquatoid remains that were smeared around the lower deck there were no signs of life, so they moved slowly towards the lift at the centre of the gantries.

Although Brehme and Tarantino were veterans, the other pair were comparative rookies, although both had risen to Able Seamen. The first, Tim Thompson, was something of a protégé of Tarantino's. They always trained together and usually served as a pair on missions, this was Thompson's fourth, and some of his peers were beginning to suspect that Tarantino was covering somewhat for his younger partner. There were no such doubts about the other aquanaut, Alfredo Quevedo. This may have been only his second mission, but he already had a kill count of six. His first mission had been to defend an alien terror attack on Antigua. Expected to be a fairly routine mission, they had hit a snag when the commanding Ensign and all five Able Seamen had been killed in a grenade ambush on leaving the Triton. Despite calls to pull out, Quevedo had managed to lead a group of five Seamen, all rookies, to victory, albeit losing two more in the process. He was being touted as next in line for promotion to Ensign, a position which was now open with the demise of Remmington and Dreyfuss.

Tarantino and Thompson volunteered to go up the top deck first, wedging themselves in the corners of the lift to lessen the risk of an ambush. It seemed fine, but then Thompson went to peer round the side of the lift chamber and caught a full sonic cannon blast in the left arm.

"Arghh, motherfucker!" in his rage he jumped out into the corridor, somehow dodging the Aquatoid's second shot, and liquefied the alien's head with his sonic rifle. Tarantino was right behind his protégé.

"Get back, get back!" They were in a dangerous position. The lift opened out onto a T-junction, with two hatches and one double door that they couldn't hope to cover without risking getting shot in the back.

"Tim get back!" The double doors slid open, revealing two Aquatoids who each fired at the aquanauts. Thompson's armour absorbed the shot, but Tarantino's attacker found a chink down the side, and clouds of blood started spurting out.

Two beams shot out of the lift, taking down the two Aquatoids, and Brehme and Quevedo emerged. The double doors were revealed to lead out onto the roof of the ship, so Brehme ordered Quevedo and Thompson to guard the hatches.

"I, I can't…" Thompson hesitated.

"Thompson, take up guard!" Brehme had already unpacked his medikit and was desperately trying to prise off Tarantino's armour. The wounded man's protégé turned and faced the hatch. Sharpe reminded them all to keep their weapons on the ground, and remember their birth month.

"How's it looking Brehme?" Rudi managed to prise off the armour plating, only to be greeted with a cross section of Tarantino's abdomen.

"Not good, the wound's too big for me to cauterize. Is there anyone left to take him back to the ship?"

"Negative, we have lost all contact with the second fire team. Just dope him up and finish sweeping the ship. Thompson what are you doing?"

"April," Quevedo picked up his gun and swung round to see Thompson doing the same thing, but he couldn't quite bring himself to carry out Sharpe's order. He was rewarded for his hesitation with a blast of sonic to his face.

"Jesus!" Brehme leapt out of the way of Thompson's next shot, but it caught him on the back of the head. Despite the armour, the impact was still enough to knock him for six, and he slumped against the far wall. Thompson went to finish him off but stopped when he saw that Tarantino, his insides still leaking out into the ocean, was reaching for his sonic rifle. The protégé turned his gun on the master, but then seemed to hesitate.

"Tim," Tarantino's voice was weak and raspy. "Don't do this Tim, you've got to fight." Sharpe's voice rang out:

"He's just out of ammo, shoot him, quick!" Thompson had slammed a fresh clip into his rifle and blown Tarantino away before he could even consider it.

Rudi could see it all, but he couldn't feel his limbs, and a great feeling of dread was creeping over him. His sonic cannon was over by his medikit, behind Thompson, and the rogue aquanaut raised his rifle up at Rudi's head. The Able Seaman closed his eyes.

He heard a burst of sonic fire, but didn't feel the burning pain. Opening his eyes, he saw Thompson's lifeless body slumping to the floor. Samsenko stood behind him, trailing electrical wire and wearing the bottom half of Dreyfuss' Aqua armour. She kept her weapon pointed at Brehme as she stepped forward, taking out her hardline communication cable and plugging it into the socket on Brehme's belt. He still had the feeling of dread, and knew he was on the verge of panicking.

"Thought you were dead."

"No, just got hit in the communications. How are you?"

"Just stunned," Brehme went to get up, but found his legs were shaking too much. "And I think they've started to go to work on me, Psi-wise."

"Panic attack?" Samsenko had read all the info on Psionic technology. "Or mind control?"

"Panic. I hope," Brehme felt the adrenaline coursing through his heart. Samsenko bent down to pick up his cannon, he went to stop her but was nowhere near quick enough as she removed the ammo and clipped it to her belt.

"I'd better take this then, don't want you shooting me in the back."

"Seaman Samsenko!" Sharpe's voice came over the link. "What is your status? Is that Dreyfuss' armour?"

"I'm okay," Samsenko was preoccupied covering all three doors. "There was another of those things in the Barracuda; I managed to take it out. Went in to find Dreyfuss, did you see what happened to the Barracuda crew?"

"Yes."

"Same thing happened to him. I thought I should take the bottom of his armour. The top half wasn't usable."

"I see. Are you fit to complete the mission alone?"

"Affirmative."

"I don't think there should be that many more aliens. If this Psi is anything like the kind used in the First Alien War, and it might not be, then there is probably a single Aquatoid leader making all the attacks. I'd guess he'd be on the bridge."

"And I'd guess that would be near the front," Samsenko turned towards the north hatch.

"Wait. Do you have a sonic pulser?"

"Just the one."

"If you find the bridge, don't take any risks, toss it in. We're beyond scavenging now."

"Affirmative."

Samsenko walked towards the hatch.

"Cover my back sir." Brehme snorted.

"What happens if something comes through the other hatch?"

"Yell out on the radio and then play dead. I can hear you, you just can't hear me." With that Samsenko walked far enough to pull the hardline from its socket, and she disappeared through the hatch.

Using all her training, she moved cautiously towards the front of the ship, ignoring any side passages. Coming up to a slightly more prestigious looking hatch, which she guessed led to the bridge, she took out her pulser and armed it. Then she opened the hatch and threw it as far as she could.

Knowing that the best time to strike was straight after the explosion, she dived through the hatch just as the bang was fading. She came up to find nothing of any threat. The navigation computer had exploded as well, aiding the demise of the two Aquatoids operating it. Over by the bow porthole another writhed, still alive but obviously in a lot of pain. Samsenko fought the urge to finish it off as she walked over. In the creatures hand was a device that she had not seen before, not in the research papers or amongst the dozens of recovered artefacts yet to be researched. It was pretty obvious that it was something to do with the Psi attacks. Samsenko stood on the leader's arm until it loosened its grip, then picked the thing up for a closer look…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zhadanovich and Faustaus were aboard the _SS Euphrates, _a huge converted oil tanker that had anchored two hundred miles west of Gibraltar, directly over the downed USO. The _Euphrates _was XCOM's covert recovery ship, tasked with delivering recovered USOs to MED ALPHA. Unlike in the First Alien War, delivery of any kind to the base was extremely problematic. It had been easy enough back then, when bases were hidden underground in remote areas, close enough to a small runway for constant resupply.

MED Alpha's modules floated on the surface of the Med, away from the shipping lanes, and were loosely bound together by the gangways and anchored to the sea floor. The only way in was through the main airlock and the sub pens, which were grouped together at the east side of the base, with a single storage module separating them from the other modules, creating a choke point in case of alien infiltration. When a downed or landed USO was cleared of all alien life, the _Euphrates _was diverted to its position. Whereas in the First War downed UFOs were on land, and could be dismantled where they lay, it was virtually impossible to salvage a USO on the sea bed.

Only a tiny part of the supertanker's hold was given over to oil, and this was only a cover. Below the main deck was a vast open space, designed to be able to hold the largest battleship encountered during the First Alien War. Once anchored over the downed USO, the entire floor of the hold could slide open to reveal the sea beneath. A set of eight cranes were built into the roof of the hold, and the _Euphrates' _diving team would attach their cables to the USO, enabling it to be winched up into the hold without anyone one the surface noticing what was happening.

Zhadanovich and Faustaus had come out by helicopter to see the recovery of the biggest USO yet. Fortunately the _Eurphrates _had just been leaving the Mediterranean, and the ship had been at the crash site in a few hours. The Admiral and the Doctor were standing on one of the gantries overlooking the hold. It was an unnerving sight, seeing the sea in the bottom of a ship.

"Looks like they've attached the winches," Faustaus said as the cranes whirred into action. "Hope they can take the weight."

"They'll be fine," Zhadanovich watched as the salvage teams gathered around the water's edge, looking down, waiting for the delivery. In the near right corner a yellow and black head bobbed up out of the water. A frogman climbed up into the hold and, after kicking off his flippers, started walking towards them.

It was Jones, the captain of the _Euphrates_. Quite rotund for a swimmer, he was breathless by the time he got to the top of the gantry.

"That's a big one you've got down there. We've never had to use all eight cranes before!"

"You'll manage," Zhadanovich watched as the other seven divers bobbed up in the pool. "How long do you think it'll take to strip her down?"

"Longer than it'll take us to get back to MED ALPHA."

"I'd take the long route then," said Faustaus, "throw everyone off the scent a bit, we've already got everything that we urgently need out of her."

Security on the _Euphrates _was watertight. Jones did all the navigation himself, so that none of the rest of the crew knew exactly where they were until they put into port. After visiting MED ALPHA Jones would take days to visit somewhere as close as Alexandria just to throw people the wrong way. When they were on land, the eight divers and ten salvagers who sailed on the _Euphrates _pretended to be ignorant journeymen, barely even worthy of the rank of merchant seaman.

When the _Euphrates_ arrived at MED ALPHA it could dock at one of the three sub pens, provided a flying sub was out on patrol. If not then all the salvaged alien artefacts had to go in through the air lock. Unloading them and moving it all about the base was a nightmare, especially as the newest storage modules were about as far away from the airlock as they could get.

"Whose supplies are you giving us this time?" Zhadanovich changed the subject as the cranes seemed to struggle.

"Africa Corp's, there were three big containers waiting for us in Tangiers. I checked 'em out on the way over here, hope you like dates."

"Love them."

As soon as the USO was above water, the hold doors closed and the ships engines started. Jones headed upstairs to program in his creative heading and Zhadanovich and Faustaus climbed up to the helipad. As XCOM's commanders-in-chief, they were the only personnel allowed to leave the base. For all the other people stationed there since the start of the war the only chances to escape duty were the facilities in the living quarters, unless they wanted to try swimming or exploring the sea bed, which many were resorting to.

Although he knew the others wouldn't like to hear it, Zhadanovich found going back to dry land tedious. Like all XCOM recruits, his family and friends had been told he was Missing In Action, though as his father had fought in the First Alien War and undergone the same thing, he knew that his would probably not believe it. Therefore the only places he went were either the _Euphrates _or the monthly conference of XCOM's sponsor nations.

Neither were worth the hassle of leaving and returning to MED ALPHA. Unless, like today, they were in helicopter range of the base, they would have a flight to Nice to retrieve their chopper and then set off for the helipad on the top of MED ALPHA's airlock.

Soon they were walking down the gangway between the airlock and the lone storage module, dripping wet thanks to a wave crashing over the helipad.

"I'm sick of this."

"Well look on the bright side. If things go the way of the first war then we'll have about eight bases by the end. You'll be flitting between them all the time."

"Or maybe we could just get seven more Admirals." They passed over the vast warehouse of the storage module and entered the main living quarters, after climbing down several ladders they arrived at the office block.

There were four offices, one in each corner of the block, which was located right at the bottom of the quarters module, hence the reason why they were rarely used. Zhadanovich held one office, Sharpe another, the third had been Lieutenant Remmington's and the fourth was for the Ensigns. Zhadanovich was pretty sure that he'd never seen an Ensign inside the fourth office, mainly because their high turnover rate made it pointless to settle in.

Zhadanovich's office was really only used as a place to stockpile all the reports and other pieces of paper that people kept sending him. Anything else he could do up in Sonar. He dropped Jones' latest ship manifest onto a pile of similar documents.

"If the auditors ever come down here you're going to be in big trouble!" laughed Faustaus.

"We might be in trouble anyway," Zhadanovich slumped into his chair and pulled a bottle of vodka out of his top drawer. Faustaus declined a glass as he sat down. "I'm pulling the plug on the new base developments." Faustaus immediately regretted not accepting the drink.

"You can't be serious Admiral, we need a separate research facility, and the alien activity around the Americas is too great to ignore."

"Don't think I didn't mention that at the conference," laughed Zhadanovich, " but the Americans are so annoyed with our inability to cover them that they're cutting the funds that were going to pay for our base off California. And the Brazillian money was going to finance the research base, and that's gone too. As it is I've got just about enough to keep this base going and keep the men equipped."

"We need to start selling the alien gear."

"No!" Zhadanovich remembered the years after the First War. Terrorist groups armed with plasma weapons, alien grenades exploding on disputed subway systems. It was one of the main reasons that XCOM had been shut down so quickly, and it wasn't going to happen this time.

"Sir, I appreciate the ethical implications but…" Faustaus searched for a reasoning that wouldn't make him sound like a complete bastard, "what's worse, a few guerrillas getting iced by some dictator's new sonic toys, or the entire world being wiped out apart from a small circle around the Mediterranean?" Zhadanovich grunted.

"I've done a feasibility study. Some of the things we haven't got round to researching will make big money. The cloning vats, the alien food, they're all none lethal and yet we're using huge amounts of the storage space to keep them. Sell them off and we'd save enough space be able to dismantle a storage module, and we'd have enough cash to start up two new bases."

"This is with none lethal technology only?"

"Yes."

Zhadanovich sat back.

"Okay. Speak to the Quartermaster and have him load it all into containers ready for the _Euphrates_. I'll leave the buyers up to you, but if anything sonic goes through that airlock then by the time I'm finished with you you'll be teaching chemistry in Hell's Kitchen!"

"Fine," grinned Faustaus, "are you still set on California for a second base."

"That's what I'm telling the committee, but I think we'd do better in the Yellow Sea, then we'd have a presence in the Pacific. We'll be close to more sponsors as well."

"YELLOW BRAVO, catchy."

The entire XCOM staff were gathered in Triton Four's sub pen. Following the massacre at the large USO, the only remaining aquanauts with any combat experience were Dujardin, Brehme and Samsenko. Seven more Seamen had been called up to add to the batch that Samsenko had been drawn from, so the garrison was twenty strong.

Zhadanovich always found it odd that the scientists and the workshop technicians, fifty of each plus the five sonar techies, so outnumbered the combatants. He and Sharpe were atop the Triton, turned into a makeshift platform by the addition of a wobbly plank up onto its roof. Everyone was in full dress uniform. For himself and the troops, excluding Sharpe, this meant naval clothes and insignia modelled on the Royal Navy, which supplied all the XCOM outfits. The scientists wore a similar uniform in white, which everyone said made them look like strippers at a hen night, and the technicians wore red.

The gathering had two purposes. Firstly it was to commemorate the deceased on the wall of remembrance. The far wall of the sub pen had been covered in concrete, and the names of the deceased were etched in columns by rank, along with number of missions and kills, if they had gotten a chance to make any. The column for Seamen had filled up so quickly that the names had been scrubbed off and re-etched in a smaller font.

Originally they had held full funeral rites for the deceased, but there were so many casualties that this had got too depressing to bear. Instead the bodies were shipped back to the families with the truth of the deceased's XCOM service, and after this simple service life went on.

Zhadanovich waited for the last of the cadet guard, the Seamen who had recently completed training and were assigned to base defence while awaiting their call up to the Alpha Squad, to file in before he spoke.

"Let us all bow our heads in a minute of silence for our eight fallen comrades: Lieutenant Samuel Remmington, Ensign Henri Dreyfuss, Able Seaman Guido Curtis, Able Seaman Guido Moreland, Able Seaman Alfredo Quevedo, Able Seaman Siegfried Siedler, Able Seaman Jason Tarantino, Able Seaman Tim Thompson." After the minutes silence, with the Mediterranean winds whistling through the pen gates, he moved straight on.

"In a climate such as this, all of us need leaders. All of us need a strong, brave face to look upon in times of crisis, to give us courage, and pull us through. Whether we are part of the last two descending into the bowels of an alien submarine, or the first off the landing zone amongst the horrors of a terror site, we look upon our leaders to get us through to the other side. Amongst you now stand people who will lead you, who will inspire, and it is those people who will now be honoured with the promotions they deserve."

Zhadanovich drew breath. Not bad, he thought, short and sweet, doesn't look like anyone's squirming down there. Zhadanovich turned to Sharpe, who sat at the top of the ramp.

"Colonel Sharpe, are you ready to present the new badges of office?"

"Yes Admiral."

"Very well. As you are all aware, the position of Lieutenant is now open. Among you all today I think you will agree that there is one person who most deserves this accolade. Lieutenant Remmington held this position from its inception to his end, and there is no one better to follow in his footsteps than our first officer, the man who wrestled a Lobsterman and won, Ensign Louis Dujardin!"

Cheers and whistles accompanied the applause that followed Dujardin up the ramp. Now fully healed, the French-Algerian was a terrifying figure. Six foot six, with his bronze skin containing muscles on top of muscles and hair shaved down to the blue roots, he didn't even need the eye patch to look frightening.

At the top of the ramp, Zhadanovich saluted him and relieved him of his jacket, which bore the arm and shoulder insignia of an Ensign. It was replaced with a Lieutenant's jacket, the rank symbolized by a chain slung across XCOM's anchor emblem. Maria Sharpe handed him the ceremonial chain, the mark of the Lieutenant which Remmington had taken to wearing as a belt, though rumour had it that Dujardin was planning to wrap it round his neck.

Once the Lieutenant had returned to his position in the front row Zhadanovich announced that Able Seaman Rudi Brehme was to be promoted to Ensign. Once Sharpe had handed over a baton to the still limping Brehme everyone on the pen floor started to get restless, wanting Samsenko to get up their and collect the knife that marked her promotion to Able Seaman so they could get back to the quarters and party.

"There is one more promotion today, and it may come as a surprise to some of you, but it shouldn't. Colonel Sharpe and myself do not consider it acceptable for there to be only two officers amongst a garrison of twenty, and considering her outstanding performance in the recent USO Recovery Mission I have no hesitation in directly promoting Seaman Tatyana Samsenko to the rank of Ensign."

Samsenko beamed as she made her way up the ramp amidst stunned applause. She had expected that she would receive the ceremonial knife as much as anybody, and for a Seaman to be promoted straight into the officer class was unprecedented! As she put on the jacket with the three bars representing the Ensign rank and received the ceremonial baton from Colonel Sharpe she didn't even think of the huge pressure of leading an entire squad into battle with the aliens…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

This was not what Samsenko had in mind when she was promoted to Ensign. Dujardin had gone missing, leaving his beeper in the mess hall, and Brehme and Zhadanovich had casually asked her to go and look for him. She had traipsed through all 14 modules and sub pens with no success. Even when she had been on the cadet guard she hadn't been required to do anything like this.

Finally she had ended up in storage module #3, at the far south of the base. Because this warehouse was so removed from the rest of the base it was only used for superfluous items, like frozen alien corpses and indecipherable alien artefacts. However now that most of these were being sold off the module was gradually emptying, and would soon be dismantled or converted altogether.

The top two levels were clear, and Samsenko climbed down to the bottom deck. She walked through endless chambers, most of them empty apart from the odd box or pallet, until she heard laughter. It was from the most distant chamber, and she entered it just in time to see Dujardin revving up a Vibroblade. These were the huge drills that Lobstermen carried as a melee weapons, and any XCOM sailor dreaded being impaled on one.

The lab boys had obviously just managed to master it, and Dujardin was certainly enjoying the noise, which was louder than a chainsaw.

"Afternoon Ensign, how'd you like what the lab boys have come up with." Even in Dujardin's hands the drill still looked massive.

"Fantastic, no more tazers for us." Dujardin shook his head.

"Well it's going to be a while before we can make our own, miniaturized of course, you couldn't lug this around with a sonic cannon. I have found another use for it though."

Three other men were down in the chamber with Dujardin. It was well known that the Lieutenant liked to keep a group of lackeys around him, usually impressionable Seamen who he could impress with tales of his gruesome life before the Second War. Since the massacre off Gibraltar he had obviously been on another recruitment drive. Samsenko recognised Rene Guerin and Bernard Laroyenne, who had both been through cadet training with her. Laroyenne was something of a sharpshooter and Guerin had been their group's natural leader, though more through shouting a lot than through true respect. They were both standing near Dujardin, laughing along as he swung the drill around. The fourth man, Marc Luget, Samsenko recognised as a member of the cadet guard. He wasn't laughing as loud, and was over in the corner, tending to a small fire that they had started in an old fuel drum.

This chamber wasn't quite empty. Against the far wall were two stacks of Lobstermen corpses, deep frozen and kept that way by the chill atmosphere, in which Samsenko could see her breath.

"Watch this," Dujardin went over to one of the stacks and pulled a corpse down with his spare hand. Then he revved the drill and plunged it into the frozen creature's abdomen. Frozen blood went everywhere.

"Like a hot knife through butter! No more blasting these things six times before they go down, I do so love hot butter on my lobster." Dujardin kept the drill spinning until the corpse was an unrecognisable mess.

The Lieutenant bent down and picked up a strip of flesh.

"Let's see what it tastes like." Spearing the piece on the end of the drill, Dujardin dangled it over the fire for a few seconds before taking it off and popping it into his mouth.

"Mmm, I've never had lobster, but if they're anything like Lobstermen, I'll have to try some! Everyone dig in." The three men obliged, but Samsenko stayed put. They were smiling and murmuring, but the look on the Seamen's faces suggested that they weren't exactly enjoying the half cooked alien flesh.

"Not joining us Tatyana?" asked Guerin.

"No thanks."

"Shame," Dujardin spoke to her through the second lump of flesh that he had shovelled into his mouth. Samsenko didn't like the look in his remaining eye as he turned to face her. He swallowed. "What brings you down here?"

"The Admiral wants you up in sonar."

"Why didn't he bleep me?" Samsenko held up his beeper. "Ah, tidy up down here would you boys," he dropped the Vibroblade to the ground, "and return that to the laboratory." Samsenko followed him out of the chamber.

Triton Four settled down amongst the dust and litter of the Aberdeen docks. Despite the transporter's engines being maxed out they had not been able to arrive before dark, and the place was lit intermittently by flickering streetlights. No doubt the aliens were attempting to shut off the power, as usual.

Even through the thick hull of the Triton, the aquanauts could hear the screams and inhuman groans as the aliens tortured the civilian population. Ensign Samsenko marched from the control console to the entrance doors, keeping her eyes fixed on those of her men.

"Triton Four to tactical, any new developments," her first words were to Sharpe, who had guided her in on her first surface landing.

"Negative Triton Four. There has been no contact with the port since the aliens scorched the perimeter. British Special Forces attempted to rescue a political contingent attending the opening of a new dry dock; they were wiped out in about five minutes."

"Ouch," Samsenko shook her head. Despite XCOM being the only outfit capable of combating the aliens, local forces still attempted foolhardy strikes even when the terror site was well within XCOM's reach.

This was Samsenko's first terror site as mission commander. Since the Transmission Resolver had been online they had spotted every alien ship passing through the area. Most had been small scout and abduction craft and Barracudas Two and Three, both fitted with dual sonic oscillators, had blown them out of the sky. Several large ships had been downed, all carrying extensive supplies towards an unknown destination somewhere around the Arctic.

As the newest physically able officer, Samsenko had commanded the first Recovery mission. Her team of rookies had iced the ten-Gillman crew without taking a hit, and the ship had provided plenty of funds thanks to all the scavenged supplies. The Lobstermen had retaliated by launching a brutal attack on a cruise liner, massacring all the passengers before XCOM even arrived. Five Seamen had perished thanks their Triscenes, huge bipedal dinosaurs that acted as tanks. That had been Brehme's first mission as Ensign, and despite taking another hit he had managed to lead the remaining four Seamen to victory.

Two of the Able Seamen who had survived the cruise attack, Henri Bouton and Rene Guerin, had marked themselves out as Ensign material, but due to the deaths of the five Seamen Zhadanovich had only been able to promote Bouton.

XCOM protocol demanded that there were at least four Able Seamen for every Ensign. With nineteen Able Seamen and one Seaman, and with Samsenko and Brehme already at Ensign level, there was no room for Guerin. The second Frenchman had been furious, as it meant it was still open season on the fourth Ensign spot.

Still, Samsenko was having to deal with having four Seamen in her terror site crew. XCOM had been told that if they kept a garrison of twenty-three Able Seamen then not only would they be allowed two Lieutenants (one for every eleven) but they would also be allowed to promote someone to Commander. Zhadanovich and Sharpe were keen to acknowledge the best leaders by promoting them, and so Guerin and two other Ables had been taken off standby and been replaced with three of the best from the cadet guard.

"What's the plan then Colonel?"

"The squad should split into two fire teams. Team one will consist of Samsenko and Schultz, Richter and Richter, Jones and Pantenella and the Coelacanth. Sweep the landing zone and set up a defensive position. The remaining four will then begin clearing the nearby buildings, with team one acting as sniper cover."

"Yes Colonel."

Sharpe's orders meant that all four of the Seamen would be leaving the Triton first. It was a risky move, for all their training they hadn't developed the instincts that were so important in the most dangerous phase of any mission: leaving the safety of the heavily armoured sub.

The two Richters on the squad, Manfred and Gunther, were brothers. Manfred was one of the Seamen and looked decidedly nervous, shuffling his Sonic Cannon between hands and tapping his feet. Gunther was an Able Seaman, and though he had gotten four kills in his two missions so far he wasn't held in very high regard by the XCOM establishment. His English was poor, he seemed to lack leadership skills, and was seen as something of a walking drone, just following orders and shooting when told.

He had been a member of Samsenko's 'batch' during training, and in the half hour journey so far she had heard him speak more words than during their time as cadets. This was because of Manfred, who was far more eloquent if a lot less battle-ready than his older brother. Gunther had been reassuring him on the way down, not so as to make him feel demeaned though, just talking to him in a mixture of German and clipped English that helped keep his mind focused. Samsenko couldn't help but feel impressed with the 'walking drone'.

"Schultz, you're with me." Samsenko waved the Seaman forward and they passed through the double doors, dropping to their knees as soon as they were a pace away from the sub. They had come down on the edge of a wide tarmac yard, edged by small buildings and with a huge warehouse to their left. Samsenko took cover behind one of the Triton's wings and ordered Schultz to do the same, knowing that there would almost certainly be snipers in the warehouse. Even with her night vision she was struggling to make out the far buildings.

"Deploy the Coelacanth." The tank rolled past them, out into the middle of the tarmac. Its turret swept the area, finding nothing. The two Richters were next out, taking up defensive positions between the tank and the Triton, before the last two Seamen left the Triton.

Samsenko could hear four sets of heavy breathing over the radio. Somewhere in the distance came a blood curdling scream.

"First phase clear, we'll place proximity grenades at the four corners of the tarmac and between the buildings. Six should be enough." Though the alien armour was so advanced that the proximity charges dealt them virtually zero damage, they were at least useful for warning of advancing aliens.

"Hold it Ensign." Sharpe's order came as an alien strolled calmly through one of the warehouse's double doors. It was a huge creature, like a giant lizard, with a great red fan plumed out from its back and a Disruptor Launcher in its hand.

"It's got torpedoes, take it out!" Fire team one advanced in formation, three beams of sonic slamming into the alien before it finally fell with an inhuman groan.

"Looks like a new species." Samsenko felt Sharpe was stating the obvious.

"Arghhh!" A scream from Jones sent the other five whirling round. The Seaman had fallen slightly behind him, and when Samsenko turned round she saw another hideous creature hovering over him. It looked like a gigantic floating brain, with a single orange eye blank and unblinking at the front. A long barb extended from its base straight through Jones' armour, and the Seaman was writhing in agony.

They watched in horror as Jones started to swell like a balloon, his head turning brown and his armour breaking off as it was ripped apart from the inside. Green ooze started dripping from his mouth and eyeholes and his spine seemed to buckle under the pressure. His right arm instantly swung round, catching Pantenella by the neck and sending her falling to the ground, blood spurting.

"Chryssalid!" Samsenko fired at the zombified Jones but it dived out of the way, straight through the Triton's double doors. Samsenko tried to ignore the screams of terror as she fired at the creature, but her first shot didn't slow it down and it relaunched its barb into Schultz's throat. The Seaman managed to get off a shot, which hit the creature bang in the eye. It withered and crashed to the ground, its barb still trailing from Schultz's neck. He began to writhe and swell as Jones had done, but two shots from behind took him straight down. More blasts were heard from inside the Triton and the zombie's scream suggested that it had gone down.

"Good shooting Richters." Samsenko turned to see that the Richter brothers had taken cover either side of the tank, and were still trying to cover all directions. Samsenko checked Pantenella, who was in a bad way but still alive. She dragged her into the Triton to find the second fire team in a state of panic. All four had been caught by the zombie's swinging arms and Samsenko could see that they were in no state to battle on.

"Ensign Samsenko, how is it looking?"

"Bad Colonel, two men are confirmed KIA, five more are down. There's only me and the Richters left."

"I see. We don't know what we're dealing with here, abort the mission." Samsenko shook her head; those were the words no mission commander wanted to hear.

"Ensign?"

"Yes Colonel."

Samsenko turned to the Richters.

"Okay boys, bring it back in, carefully now."

"Help," a woman's shout stopped them in their tracks. She stood by the nearest of the small buildings, her clothes torn and her hair dishevelled. "My family's in here, you've got to help!"

The aquanauts had never seen a civilian so lucid at a terror site before. Usually, any civilians that hadn't managed to hide were affected by the aliens, wandering into XCOM lines of fire or getting in positions so the aquanauts could better watch as the aliens gruesomely executed them.

"Gunther, cover her!" Samsenko ordered. There was the sound of a sonic blast and the woman was cut in half by the alien's shot. The elder Richter spun round towards the warehouse and fired, an alien scream suggesting that he had hit the sniper.

"Okay, then cover me!" Samsenko ran for the building, crashing through the door and swinging her sonic cannon around the room. It was a small guard post, with a huge window overlooking the nearby pier. Samsenko could see civilian remains strung along its railings.

The woman's family was indeed cowering inside, a young boy, a girl and a man. The children were under the desk and the man was wedged behind a filing cabinet. All seemed lucid, if terrified.

"I'm Ensign Samsenko of… the Royal Marines," she barked her orders, hoping to break through their shock. "We need to get you out of here now! Crawl over to the door, I'll keep watch."

"O-okay." The man ushered his trembling kids across the floor.

"Samsenko to Gunther, I have three civilians here, one adult and two juveniles. Send the Coley to cover the door, we're taking them with us."

Samsenko felt the whir of the Coley's motors as it came up to the door. She half beckoned, half pushed the children out of the building.

"Crawl towards that ship, that ship," she pointed to the Triton. "Keep the tank on your right, it will protect you." She hoped they were old enough to know the difference between left and right. She also hoped that the pier on their left was as empty as it looked.

The tank began to roll away and the children did as they had been told. They whimpered a little as they passed their mother's corpse but otherwise kept going. Samsenko brought the man out behind her, intending to serve the same role as the tank. However as soon as the man saw his wife's body he broke down.

"Oh god, oh god!"

"Move, move! Stay behind me!"

Then all hell broke loose. As soon as the children were out in the open a barrage of sonic fired out of the warehouse. The Richter brothers returned fire as one, and going by the screams of the aliens they were hitting everything they aimed at. However the Colecanth had taken three hits to the side, and though it tried to roll on it finally collapsed as its whole structure gave way, the children cowering behind the heap of metal.

"Mov..urghh." A sonic blast caught Samsenko in the chest as she tried to rouse the man, who had now sunk down to his knees. She was thrown onto her back, but when she felt her stomach she found that her armour had absorbed the shot.

Gunther was straight over, leaving his brother to cover them all.

"Move," he barked at the man, and when he was ignored he cracked the grieving husband around the head with his cannon, throwing his unconscious body over his shoulders. Samsenko followed his lead, dropping her cannon as she ran for the Triton, grabbing the children by the scruff of their necks as she went. Sonic beams showered around them, but they all somehow made it back into the Triton intact.

Samsenko grabbed one of the second fire team's cannons and joined Gunther at the door, covering Manfred as he retreated back to the Triton. He was close, right next to the corpse of Schultz's zombie, when another of the lizard-like aliens appeared in the corner of the tarmac.

"Leave it!" ordered Samsenko, but the younger Richter dropped onto his knee to get a better aim at the easy target. Both she and Gunther spotted the zombie corpse shaking at the same time.

"Look out!"

Manfred turned to see the brown body burst open, and another of the floating brains squirmed out, wasting no time in embedding its barb deep into his chest. Two sonic blasts burst open the newborn creature's flesh but it was too late, and Manfred's scream was lost as his body burst through his armour. Samsenko knew she would have to be the one to do it, and aimed her cannon.

"Nein!" Gunther stopped her, raised his own cannon and muttered something in German. Then he fired, his shot hitting his brother's zombie straight in the head and taking it down. The elder Richter quickly threw a pulser onto the body, shutting the doors so they were shielded from the blast that disintegrated the corpse and the embryo growing inside it.

Samsenko suddenly had a fright, seeing that the corpse of Jones' zombie was still lying in the corner. She grabbed it and threw it at the doors, which Gunther opened just enough to let it flop out. Then she went straight to the console and hit the auto-escape button. The Triton engines fired, sending them straight up into the air. After taking control Samsenko banked right and looked out through the porthole, just in time to see another brain creature burst out of the zombie's corpse…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"The media are calling it a disaster. Only three civilians saved, an entire port decimated," Zhadanovich shook his head. "It's likely that we'll lose all Euro-Syndicate funding." The Admiral, Sharpe, Faustaus, Dujardin and Samsenko were all crowded into Zhadanovich's new office. The new influx of Seamen had meant that the office space in the living quarters had been converted into additional bunks, so they had been relocated to a part of the sonar module that wasn't needed now that the Transmission Resolver was up and running next door.

The layout was now one big office for all the officers, with a small side room for Zhadanovich. Seven desks had been put in place, anticipating the future promotions. Zhadanovich still spent most of his time in the sonar room, which was now patched into the Resolver as the technicians were having enough trouble getting it to work round the clock without having to build a separate control room.

"Well we shouldn't have been there in the first place," snapped Samsenko. "Sending four Seamen who have not been tested for MC resistance into a terror site, it was suicide."

"We couldn't have anticipated this next level of alien weaponry."

"Why not? They surprised us with the Lobstermen, and the MC. We should expect them to have something new on every mission, you are just so desperate to get clearance for your promotions that…"

"That's enough Ensign," Zhadanovich shut her up, despite knowing deep down that she was right. "There will of course be a review of the actions taken in Aberdeen, but I intend to report to the sponsors that it was entirely appropriate, that saving three civilians was more than we could have hoped for."

"If they don't take it, show them the video of what happened to the rookies," suggested Dujardin, grimly. "Why wasn't the Resolver able to show us that there was a new species aboard the terror ship, we detected it landing."

Faustaus sighed.

"Currently the Resolver is barely running round the clock, with a 80% detection rate instead of 100%. If you want it to scan down to the molecular level then that's going down to 40%, for six hours a day max."

"And that isn't enough," said Zhadanovich, "how long until it's fully operational?"

"Well considering I've only got five people working on it, and you won't let me transfer anyone from the MC research, quite a while."

"Any chance of an estimate doctor?"

"A week, maybe two," Faustaus grunted.

Despite this setback, Zhadanovich turned to other matters.

"A memorial service will be held in the Triton pen at 1500 hours. How is Pantenella?"

"She'll be okay," said Faustaus, "she's had surgery on her throat, and will need voice therapy, but physically I'd say she'll be ready to fight in forty-eight hours."

"Well that's something, I will be offering her the knife at the ceremony of course," Zhadanovich paused. "Which means we have enough Able Seamen to promote a fourth Ensign. I consider Able Seaman Guerin to be the best candidate, do you agree?"

Dujardin nodded his head but Samsenko, who wasn't usually party to promotion decisions, interjected.

"I think it should be Richter."

"Richter?" Dujardin started, "I think our Ensigns need to be more than just accurate."

"He is. I know you think he's just a grunt, I did too. But the way he handled the Aberdeen mission, he had influence. And he turned his brother from a nervous wreck into a fighting machine."

"He killed his brother. Without a hesitation."

"I don't know about that, what does 'trou-rig' mean in English?" Everyone looked at Faustaus.

"Sorry, I think."

"He muttered that just before he fired," said Samsenko, "he's not without compassion, he just doesn't let it get in the way of the job."

"I don't know," Zhadanovich shook his head.

"You said you wanted leaders, anyone who sees the recording of what he did in Aberdeen will follow him into the sun."

"I agree," Sharpe, who usually left promotion talk up to Zhadanovich and the Lieutenant, chipped in, "Guerin is good, but he's not that good. Anyone who's read Manfred Richter's training report wouldn't recognise him in the mission recording. Gunther did that."

"Perhaps," Dujardin still didn't look convinced, "I'd like to see him in a few more missions. Guerin…"

"Guerin shouts a lot," Sharpe continues, "orders people about. Richter would lead by example, that's what we need."

"Besides," said Zhadanovich, "his kill count is way over double his mission count." Dujardin paused.

"I'd still like to see him lead a fire team or something like that. But I'll leave it up to the Admiral.

Samsenko walked down the gangway between the stores and the living quarters, still in her dress uniform. Nobody had looked more surprised than Richter when he was called up to receive his promotion; with the possible exception of Guerin.

She was on her way to the lab to oversee a few MC evaluations. Using information from the first war, Faustaus had managed to invent a crude test to see if aquanauts were susceptible to MC, though it was nowhere near a reliable guideline. So far the tests had been quite positive, all the officers seemed to be reasonably resistant, and any Ables with weak scores were being briefed on how to avoid endangering their crewmates. The research on actually harnessing the MC technology was not going so well. Even with almost the entire research staff on the case they were getting nowhere. They weren't even close to producing a definite test for MC resistance.

"There you are you bitch!" Guerin appeared in front of Samsenko. The Frenchman looked furious.

"Excuse me Rene?"

"You sold me out," he came right up to her, jabbing his finger in her face. "Getting your little friend promoted ahead of me! I saw you in the Admiral's office this morning!"

"You know I don't have any say in promotions," lied Samsenko, "I was in for debriefing!"

"Bullshit!" Samsenko knew she shouldn't have been standing for this off of an inferior aquanaut, but it was difficult with Rene. He was part of her batch, the nine other cadets she had gone through training with, and back then it had been obvious he wanted to be the leader. She had always suspected that he saw her as a threat, particularly when she was chosen ahead of him as the sole Seaman on that first Recovery mission.

"You shouldn't even be an Ensign, you just got lucky because the Admiral picked you out of a hat for…" Samsenko knew she had to stop this, passers-by were stopping to watch.

"ABLE SEAMAN GUERIN!" the voice that came barrelling down the corridor was so loud Samsenko thought it must have been Dujardin, but then Richter came striding up to Guerin and thrust his stubble straight into the Able Seaman's face.

"How dare you speak to officer like that! Apologize!" Guerin hesitated, "APOLOGIZE!"

"Sorry, Ensign," Guerin stammered.

"I will be reporting this to the Admiral," Richter slurred in his thick German accent, "dismissed!" Guerin slinked off and Richter nodded to Samsenko.

"Tatyana."

"Gunther." She smiled as he walked off, thinking how close they had come to promoting the mardy little upstart instead.

Zhadanovich had got his Commander. A downed Lobsterman scout had provided an opportunity to blood three more Able Seamen, during which Pantenella had proved herself to be something of a sharp shooter. It was the first time they had taken on Lobstermen without any casualties, with Dujardin taking a Vibroblade and butchering three of the species that had cost him his eye. Also, the MC research had deduced that of the four main alien species only Aquatoids and possibly the creatures seen in Aberdeen possessed the ability to use MC as a weapon, Gillmen and Lobstermen appeared to only be capable of using it to control terror units, giving hope to the Able Seamen who were scoring low in the MC tests.

When the MED ALPHA staff gathered in the Triton pen for the promotion ceremony, they were surprised to find that the white uniforms of the scientists were missing. Zhadanovich began the ceremony without mentioning it. No one was surprised when Dujardin was elevated to the rank of Commander, and Rudi Brehme was the first to be called up to receive his Lieutenant's chain. Samsenko knew that it would be between her and Bouton for the second Lieutenant post, there was no chance of Richter being called up before he even commanded a mission. Still, it was nice when her name was called out and she stepped up receive her second promotion.

Helga Brehme was called up to take her brother's place as Ensign and Siegfried Meyer took the final officer spot. Afterwards Zhadanovich had some news, which was surprising even to Dujardin.

"I assume you're all wondering what has happened to the scientists. Well the answer is simple. They have been relocated." There was a murmur around the pen, had XCOM finally managed to scrape together enough cash for another base?

"I was informed this morning that our new base, designated BASE HOTEL and dedicated to research and manufacture, is now fully operational. As the Transmission Resolver now seems to be running without problems, I ordered all fifty scientists to transfer to the base, the location of which will remain secret except for those who serve on it, along with Colonel Sharpe and myself. All research materials and artefacts are being transferred out there in the next few days. The workshop modules are yet to be completed, but once they are all technicians will also transfer, and we will have a separate facility capable of researching and resupplying us, hopefully for the remainder of the war."

Zhadanovich had been extremely pleased with how quickly BASE HOTEL had been developed. After the first sale of alien artefacts had shown how much profit they were sitting on, he had immediately ordered an evaluation of his master plan. This was a network of eight bases with one, BASE HOTEL, dedicated solely to research and manufacture. The rest would be strike and intercept bases, each housing one Triton, one Barracuda and garrison of twenty aquanauts. With MED ALPHA already covering Europe, he planned for the other six to be based in the Yellow Sea, the Mexican Gulf, the Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic and two in the Pacific. He wasn't definite on the position of the Pacific bases yet but he guessed they would end up around Fiji and the Bering Straight.

"That is not all. The first of our additional strike bases has been constructed simultaneously. YELLOW BRAVO is located off South East Asia, and I have already had Barracuda Four delivered to it. Triton Five is on its way to pick up ten of you to man the base." Zhadanovich read off the names of six Able Seamen. "As for the officers, it has been decided that Bravo Squad will be jointly commanded by Lieutenants Brehme and Samusenko, with Ensigns Richter and Meyer joining as secondary officers. Commander Dujardin will remain in command of Alpha Squad, assisted by Ensigns Bouton and Brehme. Seventeen Seamen have already been drafted in, so that both bases will have a garrison of twenty…"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

YELLOW BRAVO seemed tiny compared to the amorphous expanse of MED ALPHA. There were no labs or workshops and the alien containment was clearly just a holding pen for use until captured aliens could be shipped off to BASE HOTEL. At the far north was the sub pen, joined to the airlock, followed by the lone storage module, the quarters module and the Transmission Resolver. That was about it.

Samsenko didn't even like walking about above deck. The humidity was crippling: she could still feel it down in the modules, even with the air conditioning. However there wasn't anywhere else she could go for a jog so here she was, running round and around the edges of the modules as the ocean flicked her with warm spray. As she reached the far edge of the Sub Pen she noticed someone walking towards her. She stopped, and straight away felt her clothes stick to her with sweat.

It was Virgil Hand, one of the Able Seamen who had transferred with her from MED ALPHA.

"Lieutenant!" he cut off his shout when he realized she'd seen him. "You're needed down in the sonar room!"

"Why didn't you page me?" Samsenko went for her hip, where she kept her beeper, and just felt wet lycra. "Dammit, must have dropped it."

"I'll tell the cadet guard to take a look for it," Hand offered as they headed back towards the airlock. "Shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Unless it fell in the sea. What's this about, have we got a bogey?"

"I didn't know, Lieutenant Brehme just told me to get my arse up here and find you. There hasn't been a yellow alert though." Once they reached the access lift Samsenko was relieved to find that she still had her ID card. One swipe and they were heading down into the module.

Brehme was waiting for her in the main sonar room, placed right beneath the Resolver array. All five of the sonar technicians were on duty. Her fellow Lieutenant was stood behind the chief technician, Martin Fisher, who stared at a black radar screen showing a single white dot.

"Rudi, what's going on?"

"Trouble in the Gulf of Mexico," Brehme tapped at a console and brought up the day's report. "The American and Mexican presidents have decided to hold a little conference, and they didn't bother to tell us in case of any security breach."

"In the Gulf?" Samsenko scoffed, "don't tell me they're holding it on a ship?"

"Oh yes, but that's not the half of it. Half an hour ago Barracuda Three intercepted what we thought was a Heavy Cruiser over the Arctic Ocean. Well MED ALPHA's Transmission Resolver must be on the blink again because it turned out to be a Terror Ship. Barracuda Three had to retreat and is now in dry-dock with about a third of its armour left, but it reports that it did manage to score several big hits on the Terror Ship's engines."

Samsenko grimaced.

"Where was the ship headed?"

"South west. Ten minutes ago the American secret service lost all contact with the ship carrying the two presidents."

"Nice of them to let us know so fast!"

"It's not good news. They didn't even host it on a naval vessel. Apparently it's on a standard cruise liner, to keep it further under wraps they say."

"Well it didn't work," Samsenko turned to the main screen, which was showing a world map with the stricken ship clearly indicated. "If the aliens know about the conference then the presidents have probably already been kidnapped."

"Not necessarily," Brehme changed the screen to show a satellite photo of the cruise ship. The huge shape of an alien Terror Ship could clearly be seen alongside it. "The Americans have three spy satellites focused on the ship. As far as we can tell the Terror Ship landed and deployed its terrorist force, but it's still there."

"Damage from Barracuda Three?"

"Perhaps. But the American president has an entourage of twenty secret service agents with him, and there are an unspecified number undercover amongst the regular passengers. That's not taking into account the Mexican entourage as well; they may be putting up a decent fight."

"Well they won't be putting one up for much longer. Why isn't Triton Four in the air yet?"

"They only just got back from a Supply Ship Assault. Apparently the Triton took a hit in the rear and won't be seaworthy again for a few hours."

"Shit."

The technician on the communications console called out.

"Sir, Ma'am, Admiral Zhadanovich is on visual."

"Put him on the main screen." Zhadanovich's face replaced the world map. Samsenko very quickly remembered that she was still in her sweats, and grabbed a nearby set of overalls.

"Lieutenants, I take it you have been keeping up with proceedings."

"Yes sir," said Samsenko, "I suggest we send Barracuda Four to the Terror Site immediately."

"A Barracuda?"

"Yes, if the only reason that USO is still there is that the secret service are putting up a fight then it could take off any minute. We need to be able to shoot it down and try and rescue the presidents on Recovery, assuming the aliens want them alive. And even if the Terror Ship's crippled, the aliens may send another ship in to retrieve hostages."

"Agreed."

"Mr Fisher," Brehme turned to the technician, "sound the yellow alert. Launch Barracuda Four and order it to proceed to the Terror Site at maximum speed." The base klaxon sounded and the alert lights around the room flashed yellow.

"How long until Triton-Four is operational?" asked Samsenko.

"About an hour."

"Jesus, we could be there by the time they've crossed the Atlantic."

"I know," Zhadanovich smiled, "that's why we're going to launch a double mission. I've assured the NAFTA representative that we will do all we can to rescue the presidents, and I think that sending in twenty troops and two SWSs should about cover that."

"A double mission?" This had never been tried before, but then again Bravo Squad hadn't even been out on a mission yet.

"We can plan tactics in the air and Colonel Sharpe can oversee the entire mission from here on ALPHA. I would recommend that you both go."

"Agreed," Brehme turned to Samsenko, "we could do with you and Meyer coming along. That way we can just take the tank and six Ables and not have to worry about blooding any Seamen."

"Okay, but I don't want a Seaman running our tactical station," Samsenko turned to Fisher, "Martin, take up a position in tactical."

"Okay Lieutenant, but don't expect any combat advice from me."

"Just keep your eyes open and point out anything that Colonel Sharpe misses, okay?"

The orange alert sounded as Brehme and Samsenko jogged down the gangways towards the sub pen. It called all the combat personnel to the armoury, even the ones that were off duty, and they were joined by most of the twenty strong garrison as they passed the quarters module. The yellow alert sounded again, indicating that Barracuda-Four had taken off.

When they arrived in the armoury, set below the sub pens, Samsenko could see that everyone was itching to get into the armour lockers.

"Okay listen up people," she shouted, "this is a highly delicate situation, hence the orange alert. A cruise ship carrying the American and Mexican presidents has been attacked by a Terror Ship in the Gulf of Mexico. We will be carrying out a joint rescue operation with Alpha Squad, and due to our need for the NAFTA sponsorship to continue we will only be taking experienced sailors. Therefore the squad will consist of the SWS, the four officers and the six Able Seamen. Anyone who isn't in those categories can stand down now."

There were a few grumbles from the ten rookies as they filed out of the armoury, but Samsenko was too busy attaching her armour to pay them any notice. Brehme was beside her, loading a sonic cannon.

"Do you reckon we can come up with an extraction plan in two hours?" he asked.

"Should be able to," Samsenko snapped on her breast plate, "we are technically special forces, hostage rescue is supposed to be a forte."

"When have we done a proper hostage rescue against the aliens? Usually we just blast our way in and take any civvies that survive as a bonus."

"This is different though. The aliens won't want the two presidents dead any more than we will. Hopefully."

Sharpe had not been thrilled at the prospect of a sonar technician 'helping her out' in tactical, but Fisher hadn't said anything yet so she couldn't really complain. There were so many personal camera screens around the edge of her tactical display that she was struggling to make out the detail of the faces they were looking at. Her main screen showed that Triton Five was barely halfway across the Pacific; the amber alert for Triton Four's launch had only just sounded: so they would arrive at the Terror Site at roughly the same time.

Barracuda-Four had done a quick sweep of the cruise ship before it set up a patrol of the area. Amongst the grisly pictures of aliens executing civilians on the ship decks there had been one bit of good news: the Terror Ship's rear end had been almost completely blown away, the engines having obviously exploded under the stress of landing. At least they didn't have to worry about the presidents being abducted anytime soon.

Aboard Triton Five, Samsenko was at the controls as Brehme tried to formulate an attack strategy with the other officers.

"I say we get Barracuda-Four to destroy the USO," Dujardin's voice came over the radio, "there's bound to be aliens still inside, and they wouldn't hold the presidents there if they were going to be picked up by another ship."

"Negative," Sharpe cut in, "they may be attempting repairs. Even with a hull breach they'd only need to get one accelerator working to be able to attempt an escape, and in that case it would be an obvious place to keep the hostages. Anyway we can't risk a Zrbite explosion that close to the ship."

"What's the plan then Colonel?"

"We've got two squads, so let's use them, and let's stick to our usual tactics for ship sites. Alpha Squad can land at the bow, Bravo Squad at the stern. Then each squad can split into two fire teams, one for the interior and one for the decks, and work their way towards the middle."

"Sounds sensible," Brehme spoke over the radio, "do we have any word from the secret service yet?"

"No, the aliens are keeping up their radio jamming. Either that or they're all dead. Even Barracuda Four can't get through. If any agents survive the next hour they might be good for intel on what happened to the presidents. But I wouldn't put a lot of hope on that. There's something else though."

"What?"

Sharpe exhaled into the microphone.

"The Navy SEALS have got involved, SEAL Team 15 has been deployed and will arrive about fifteen minutes before you get there."

"Do they have any specialized equipment?"

"None, not even any old plasma weapons. Guess they just couldn't let their president go, despite what happened to the SBS in Aberdeen."

"Have they let you hear their briefing?"

"Oh yes, they seem very well organised. Only trouble is, they're going in on helicopters."

"Helicopters? They won't even make it onto the deck!"

As the two Tritons began to encircle the cruise ship, Samsenko glanced out of the porthole beside. She was dead in the water, a trait the aliens always seemed to achieve whenever they attached a civilian vessel. Even from this distance she could see the bodies on the deck, but as they came round towards the stern there were signs of life.

A group of black clad SEALS were crouched on the edge of the rear helipad, firing submachine guns at an unseen threat within the ship. Their helicopter was a smoking wreck in the centre of the pad, and the mangled carcasses of two more SEAL craft hung over the sides of the ship.

"Colonel, some of the SEALS made it in!"

"Roger Triton Five, get in there and land. Triton Four take up a hover position off the bows."

Samsenko brought the Triton over the helipad and fired the landing jets, bringing it down next to the destroyed helicopter and only a few metres from the SEAL team.

"Bravo fire team one, deploy!" The first five sailors, led by Brehme and Meyer, ran through the entrance hatch alongside the SWS, diving for cover as soon as they were able. Samsenko felt sonic bolts hit the ship. The radio crackled.

"This is Brehme, we're all behind cover. I can make out three hostiles in the windows overlooking the helipad." There was another burst of sonic. "Make that four hostiles. All Tasoth."

Tasoth. That was the name that had been given to the lizard-like creatures that they had first encountered in Aberdeen. Samsenko shuddered.

"That means we have to be aware of MC attacks. All troops with a sub-50 MC score are to unload their weapons immediately. Everyone watch your partners' back. The codeword to reload is the day of your birth, shoot anyone who reloads without stating this."

"Affirmative," Samsenko knew that two of the Ables in Brehme's fire team had sub-50 scores. In her group only Hand did.

"Okay fire team two let's deploy. Able Seaman Hand you're with me, we're heading for the SEAL team."

Two sailors went out first, with the third Able heading over to join Brehme. Samsenko and Hand made a dash for the SEALS as the fire teams covered them. The SEALS were sheltering behind several metal containers which had almost been torn apart by sonic fire. There were eight of them, plus a corpse on the floor. They all wore black combat suits and their faces were streaked with camouflage make-up. Once they had taken cover behind the containers one of them stepped forward. Samsenko noticed that they all had their guns trained on the XCOM troops.

"State name and rank!" ordered the SEAL.

"Lieutenant Samsenko, XCOM Bravo Squad," she lowered her sonic cannon as a peace offering. The SEAL didn't follow suit. "So who are you."

"Commander Hester, SEAL Team 15."

"Are you all that's left?" Hester seemed to bristle at the question. There was an alien scream amongst the sonic fire. Richter's voice came over the radio.

"One down."

"Commander? You've lost three helicopters, I assume there were four for you to get your whole team in. Where's the fourth one."

"In the sea," Hester said. "It didn't even make it to the helipad. We managed to abseil down before they blew ours apart, the other two didn't even get a chance to unload their crews."

"Okay." Thirty one elite troops wiped out in a matter of minutes! "Once we've secured this area I suggest you and your men take cover inside our ship." Hester laughed.

"I don't think so. Our mission is to rescue the President of the United States, you do know he's aboard don't you."

"Of course I do," retorted Samsenko, "we've been fully briefed. My squad's priority is to rescue the two presidents and secure the ship."

"No, you're XCOM. You secure the ship and hunt down the aliens. My SEALS will rescue the president."

"Now listen to me…"

"Don't argue with me Lieutenant," Hester snapped, "just give us covering fire while we make for the decks."

"Don't try and pull rank on me Commander, XCOM isn't a branch of the US Navy."

Two more Tasoth screams filled the air.

"Right, there's only one left!" Hester ignored Samsenko and shouted to his men. "Let's head for the hatches, go, go, go!"

"Wait…" Samsenko's order was lost as the eight SEALS broke cover and ran for the ship's hatches. "Attention Bravo fire teams, cover the SEALS, I repeat, the SEALS are advancing, provide cover."

The last remaining Tasoth sacrificed himself in order to kill two of the running SEALS, taking five beams of sonic as he did so. The six remaining SEALS disappeared into the ship without any hesitation. Over the radio Samsenko heard the sounds of Alpha Squad's deployment at the bow of the ship. They seemed to be coming under a similar level of fire. Brehme started shouting to her across the helipad.

"I suggest we get inside while the coast is clear. I'll take team one in and start clearing the upper decks, you secure outside and then come in to join us."

"Roger…shit!" Hand was moving to reload his weapon with a dazed look in his eyes. Samsenko leapt at him, knocking the gun out of his hand before the magazine was anywhere near it. He tried to fight back so she clubbed him round the head and grabbed his wrists.

By now the others had realized what was happening. Richter ran over and wrapped a zip-tie around his wrists, Meyer doing the same with his ankles. Samsenko finished the job by slipping a hood over his head.

"Get the other two sub-50s inside," ordered Samsenko, "something's obviously still watching us. I'll take my team around the decks."

"Affirmative," Brehme waved his team inside, and Samsenko, Richter and the two Ables started edging their way around the ship behind the Coelacanth, leaving the incapacitated Hand writhing about on the deck.

"No sign of the SEALS," Brehme announced over the radio, "do we know what their plan is?"

"Basically they're going to sweep the ship, though how they're going to do that with only six of them I've no idea," said Sharpe. "They were relying on secret service intel, but there's still been no contact with any remaining agents."

"Well it doesn't look like there's any left up here."

Samsenko was right, the only things along the deck were mangled human corpses. Some were brandishing weapons, suggesting that they had been undercover agents. The second Bravo team made it halfway around the ship unmolested before a burst of activity on the radio stopped them in their tracks.

"This is Dujardin," the Commander roared, "we are under heavy fire at the swimming pool. Four Tasoths, two Triscenes and a Bio-Drone, with more inside the decks. My entire first fire team has been MC disabled, I've had to shoot two!"

"This is Brehme, we've encountered little resistance in the interior, we can try and support you from behind."

"Do it quickly!"

"Lieutenant Samsenko," Sharpe butted in, "I can't see how they're getting such effective MC targets. There must be a Tasoth somewhere around there with an excellent vantage point." Samsenko started up at the mast, five tall decks above her.

"They could be on the observation platform, it's ahead of all the funnels and I'm guessing it overlooks the bow."

"Well get up there, quickly!"

Samsenko led her team up the metal stairwells that ran up the side of the ship, trying to keep alert at the same time as moving as quickly as possible. They'd left the SWS to patrol on its own, hoping it could take cover before it came under any sonic fire. Once they were on the top deck they had to go through the bridge to get to the mast that held the observation deck. Most of the bridge crew were slumped over their controls, dead. The captain was impaled on a flagpole in front of the forward window. Samsenko thought she saw him move, and hoped it was the wind.

"Jesus I can't," one of the Ables dropped to his knees. The other one quickly joined him, both screaming as if their heads were being twisted off.

"Panic attack," grunted Richter.

"Okay, I should be able to check the observation platform on my own. You stay with them and make sure they don't do anything stupid."

"Do you want me to tie their hands and feet?"

"Yes."

The main mast was at the rear of the bridge deck, with a narrow ladder leading up to the observation platform. It was very windy on the top deck, and Samsenko took an extra hard grip on the bottom rungs. It was hard work climbing with both her Vibroblade and sonic cannon, but she didn't want to leave either at the bottom.

Once she was above the bridge she could look down on the entire bow of the ship. The swimming pool had obviously been used as some sort of ceremonial execution area by the aliens, because its bloody water was full of human corpses. Four Tasoths were taking cover around the edge, and a Bio-Drone floated in front of the pool, screeching at the XCOM troops below. As she watched a blast of sonic caught the drone square in the front, sending it spinning to the ground where it exploded, taking the nearest Tasoth with it. Samsenko knew that once she got to the observation platform she would be in an excellent sniping position.

She was just a few rungs from the platform when a Tasoth came snarling over the edge, swiping at her with a spinning Vibroblade. She let go, falling out of its way and managing to grab back onto the ladder about ten rungs down. Unfazed, the great lizard began crawling headfirst down the ladder, gripping with three legs as it held the blade in its fourth.

Samsenko knew she wasn't a match for the creature in hand-to-hand combat. Then it lurched forward and would have taken her face off with the drill if she hadn't let herself fall back, gripping the rungs with the tops of her feet so that her back crashed into the ladder upside down. The Tasoth was on her in an instant but she had managed to grab her sonic cannon in the fall and fired it into the alien's open mouth at almost point blank range.

The Tasoth's head exploded, and its body hit her hard as it fell. Her feet slipped but she managed to grab hold of a rung, twisting her arm badly as it stopped her falling to the deck along with the dead alien and her sonic cannon.

The second Tasoth looked momentarily terrified as she emerged atop the ladder. It dropped the MC weapon it was holding and went for its sonic rifle, but by then Samsenko had already rammed her Vibroblade all the way through its head.

"Samsenko to Alpha Squad, observation deck secured, I'll provide sniper cover." She picked up the Tasoth's rifle and started picking off the Tasoths down by the swimming pool. She'd managed to kill two before the third worked out what was happening and ran for cover with his snipers. The snipers that Brehme's team were hopefully about to sneak up behind.

Satisfied that there was nothing else to shoot, Samsenko slid down the ladder and joined Richter on the bridge. The two Ables were calm again, so Richter had untied them and allowed them to carry weapons. As the four of them made there way down to the pool there was a huge explosion and great shards of rubble went flying out over the bows of the ship.

"Shit, man down!" Brehme yelled over the radio, "We got surprised by a Bio-Drone. I think it's taken all the snipers with it though!"

"Affirmative Lieutenant," Sharpe's voice cut through the chaos. "All personnel rendezvous at the swimming pool, let's plan our next move."

The swimming pool had not been a good meeting point. The sight of all the corpses had triggered off another panic attack from one of the Alpha Squad Ables. Dujardin had therefore ordered the three who had been MC'd in the battle, along with the two Bravo Squad members who had panicked on the bridge, to stay on the upper decks and hunt out any rogue aliens and surviving civilians. Samsenko reminded them to check on Hand before sending them on their way.

That left herself, Brehme, Richter, Meyer and three Ables from Bravo squad; where as Dujardin only had himself, Ensign Bouton and three Ables from Alpha Squad. He had been reluctant to bring his other Ensign, Rudi's sister having taken a bad hit on Alpha Squad's previous mission. They all decided to arm up and head for the central stairs, sweeping the holds until the found the hostages.

What greeted them at the bottom of the main staircase was not a pretty sight. The SEALS had made it down there, and four of them lay dead on the stairs. The body of a suited secret service agent was among them, his ear about a metre away from his head, with his earpiece still attached. One of the corridors ahead was literally blocked with human bodies, the aliens having arranged them into a wall with all the care of a bricklayer. Samsenko almost expected one of the Ables to have a panic attack.

They didn't, and Dujardin ordered them to make a hole in the wall of bodies. Samsenko noticed that one of the SEALS was groaning and, after turning him over, found that it was Hester. His eyes were glazed and he was covered in blood, but he seemed to recognise her.

"Two of ours, our own men. Shot us in the back." His groans suggested that the aliens' MC weapons had got them before their sonic ones. Samsenko shook him.

"Commander, who is this man, is he an agent?" she gestured towards the earless corpse.

"Yes. He was still alive when we found him."

"Did he say anything about the presidents."

"He said, he said that they got the presidents almost straight away," blood started dribbling out of the sides of his mouth, "they were taking them below but didn't see where…"

A round of bullets slammed into her and Hester. The aquanauts swung round to see two SEALS calmly walking down the corridor, firing their submachine guns. They went down in a hail of sonic. The bullets had barely scratched Samsenko's armour, but Hester had taken nearly half a magazine and was stone dead.

"They were MC'd, that means the aliens know we're here!" snarled Brehme. Right on cue one of the Ables removed a body from the wall and it was instantly cut apart by a barrage of sonic.

The twelve aquanauts dived for cover as hordes of Tasoths swarmed up the corridor, snarling and shrieking. Even the full retaliatory fire of the XCOM weapons didn't seem to slow their advance. Samsenko spotted that Meyer was the nearest man to them.

"Ensign Meyer, sonic pulser!" she ordered. The Ensign dived into the breach and flung one of his grenades at the Tasoths, but a burst of sonic caught it in mid flight. The explosion took out the corridor walls, exposing plush suites smeared with blood and organs, and sent Meyer flying through the air, smashing into the steel girders of the staircase.

Gunter, Bouton and the Ables took their chance, taking cover behind charred furniture and blasted walls as they tried to advance down the corridor against the tide of Tasoth solders. Samsenko and Brehme were attending to Meyer.

"He's in a bad way, stone cold unconscious."

"Can you stabilize him?"

"Probably," Brehme pulled a bandage tight around Meyer's arm. "But we need to get him back upstairs."

"We'll get the others down to pick up, should be safe to leave him at the bottom of the stairs," Samsenko spoke into her radio. "Lieutenant Samsenko to hunter team, we have an officer down below decks. Request you pick him up from the bottom of the central staircase." Pantenella came over the radio.

"Roger Lieutenant, we've had a bit of a situation up here. One man down. We'll come down and pick up your casualty in about five minutes."

"Affirmative hunter team, we should be down below decks by then."

Using some heavy grenade and sonic fire, Bouton and Dujardin had blown their way through the Tasoths and managed to reach an access hatch which Sharpe had pinpointed on the ship schematics. It was in a dangerous position, at a crossroads between four corridors, and when Brehme and Samsenko joined their ten comrades they were all on edge, their gun barrels twitching about as they searched the corridors.

"Look at all the automatic weapons fire," Bouton pointed at all the bullet holes on the hatch and walls. "Maybe the presidents came this way."

"It must have been where the agents made their last stand," said Dujardin, "Colonel, where does this hatch go?" There was a moment of silence as Sharpe brought up the schematics.

"It looks like it's an emergency escape hatch from the engine decks. The lowest part of the ship."

"Why are they taking the presidents all the way down there?" Brehme asked, "the further into the ship they take them, the harder it will be to get them out again."

"Look out," Conway, one of the Bravo team Ables, screamed as a sonic pulser bounced around the corridor and landed at his feet. Everyone else dived for cover, but the Able Seaman couldn't hope to get away in time and Samsenko had to watch as one of her men was ripped in half by a sonic explosion.

"Arghh!" Richter was first to leap out from hiding, shooting the two Tasoths who had followed the grenade into the corridor square in the head. He forced the access hatch open and yelled at the others to join him.

"Get down there, get down! We're too exposed out here!" The other eleven wasted no time, Bouton followed the two remaining Bravo Ables down and Dujardin and Brehme went down with the Alpha Squad men. Samsenko was left behind to cover with Richter, and for the first time she noticed that the three Alpha Squad Ables were the three she had seen down in the storage module with Dujardin: Laroyenne, Luget and Guerin.

Guerin was still an Able Seaman. Zhadanovich had taken a very dim view of his insubordination towards Samsenko and despite his friendship with Dujardin he now looked like being passed over for promotion indefinitely. Samsenko had been secretly relieved when he not been one of the six Ables to transfer to Bravo Squad, as since his disgrace he had apparently become something of a loose cannon on missions, breaking orders to make lone assaults on the aliens with little regard for anyone's safety.

Samsenko was getting ready to cover Richter's descent when she noticed that the Ensign was preparing to descend the ladder with one arm. A closer inspection revealed that the sonic blast had fused the armour on his left arm to his skin, and then in turn melted the arm into the chest armour. Samsenko couldn't imagine the pain Richter was in.

"Ensign, you are not going down that ladder like that!" she barked.

"I'm fine."

"You are not, get back up on deck and take command of the hunter team."

"I'm _fine_."

"Gunter," Samsenko grabbed his good arm and dragged him away from the hatch. "Get up on the top deck, that is an order." Gunter's eyes met hers for just a second.

"Yes Lieutenant." He sauntered off back towards the central staircase and Samsenko started off down the ladder, blocking the hatch behind her with a pulser blast of her own.

It was a long climb down to the lowest deck, and when she dropped from the hatch she almost landed on Luget's corpse, the Able Seaman having been blown away as soon as his feet touched the deck. Sonic beams flashed around her as she dived behind the nearest crate.

The hatch brought them down in the middle of the engine room, right by the main cylinders, and they were taking heavy fire from the raised platforms on either side of the long room. Samsenko joined Dujardin and Bouton behind the crates.

"Where's Richter?" asked the Commander.

"I ordered him to go back, he took a bad hit from that pulser blast."

"As bad as your man?" Dujardin looked grim, "we could have done with him sniping down here."

"Even he can't shoot a sonic cannon one handed, what's the action?"

"We're at a dead end. The platform to the left just holds a hatch that leads down to the bilge decks, the one on the right goes through the rest of the ship, I'm guessing that's where they took the presidents."

"I say we move out, two by two," Bouton ducked as a stray sonic blast whizzed past his head "try and clear them out with pulsers."

"Do you have a pulser Lieutenant?"

"No, I used it to seal the hatch."

"Okay then," Dujardin turned to Bouton, "me and you will move out first with an Able each. I'll take the right platform, you take the left. Samesenko, you and Brehme follow us out with your men."

Dujardin waved to Laroyenne and Bouton to Guerin, signalling them to race for cover as close to their respective platforms as they could. But as soon as they were out in the open the number of Tasoths on the platforms seemed to double, and though the Bravo Squad managed to pick off a few Bouton was torn apart by sonic fire as soon as he stepped from behind cover. Guerin only made it to the next set of crates because one of the aliens' shots ignited a fuel drum which exploded in a fireball big enough to hide him from view as he advanced.

Laroyenne made the fatal mistake of stopping to return fire and was immediately cut down, but the fire from the right platform didn't seem as intense and Dujardin made it into a good position, immediately launching a pulser towards the aliens. It couldn't have been more accurate, and five Tasoth bodies were thrown over the side by the blast. Bravo Squad took down the surviving snipers and it looked like the right platform was clear.

"Lobstermen!" Six of the great orange creatures had broken cover on the left platform and were heading for the hatch at its centre. Two of them had lifeless bundles slung over their shoulders.

"This should slow them down." Samsenko saw to her horror that Guerin was preparing to throw a pulser up onto the platform.

"Guerin, do not throw that grenade!"

"Up yours Lieutenant, this is my kill!"

"They have the presidents!" It was too late, Guerin had already thrown the pulser. The first hostage-carrying Lobsterman had already made it down the hatch, but the second was only halfway down when the pulser landed right next to it.

After the explosion its head had disappeared, but as the Lobstermen were the only known creatures capable of withstanding a pulser blast Samsenko didn't know if it had been decapitated or just fallen as she ordered everyone to head for the platform. Seemingly unfazed by the dismembered Tasoth corpses all around them, the four remaining Lobstermen shrugged off the blast and disappeared down the hatch without even returning fire.

Guerin was the first onto the platform and ran straight to the hatch, firing down it repeatedly. Samsenko was next up, and she felt like kicking him down after the Lobstermen. The second hostage had been thrown away from its captor and was slumped against the wall, where it had made a dent. Samsenko went and over to check and found the almost unrecognisable face of the American president.

"Guerin you bloody idiot!" she yelled as Dujardin joined them on the platform. "I ordered you not to throw that grenade!"

"Well I didn't like the idea of being ripped apart while you decided on the right course of action," Guerin glared her down, unrepentant.

"That's enough," snapped Dujardin. Even he was struggling to contain his anger at the renegade Able. "We've got to get after…" He was cut off by a burst of sonic from the opposite platform. Hordes of Tasoths were streaming into the engine room, and even sustained bursts of sonic fire couldn't hold them back as the aquanauts dived for cover.

"Down the hatch!" yelled Dujardin, turning to Guerin, who was sheltering beside him "you first!" Guerin laughed in his face.

"After what happened to Luget? No way!"

"Dammit Guerin," Dujardin raised his cannon, "get down that hatch! I'll be behind you." Guerin stared down the Commander's gun barrel and stood up without checking that the coast was clear.

Samsenko counted at least six sonic blasts hit him in the head simultaneously. His body flopped over, his open neck hanging over the side of the hatch.

"Shit. Let's get out of here!" Dujardin slid across the floor and dropped down the hatch. Samsenko was the next nearest and did the same thing, with Brehme and the two remaining Ables laying down some much needed covering fire.

As soon as her head was below the deck there was a huge explosion, the shockwave big enough for her to lose her grip on the rungs.

For the second time that mission she went falling through the air, this time unable to get any kind of grip on the ladder. On any other deck she would have been killed on impact: as it was she hit the ship's five metre deep pool of bilge with a splash, cracking her head on the bottom before coming up spitting out the combination of rainwater, oil and urine.

She felt a little dazed, but nothing seemed broken. She felt herself being hauled up onto a ledge by Dujardin. The bilge decks ran the length of the ship and were divided up by arched bulkheads with a narrow ledge running down either side. Dujardin let her regain her senses as he tried to get back in touch with Brehme.

"Commander Dujardin to Lieutenant Brehme, come in Lieutenant Brehme."

"It's no good," Sharpe replied over the radio, "they couldn't have survived that blast. How is Samsenko?"

"I'm fine," Samsenko got to her feet. "Could do with a status update though."

"Richter has joined the hunters and they have cleared the upper decks, but they lost one in a firefight and I can't see any way that they can get down to you without coming under heavy fire. Barracuda Four has encountered three more USOs, all Hunter-type. It managed to down two and inflicted significant damage on the third. However it had to disengage due to lack of fuel before it could fully destroy the craft."

"So there's a Hunter in the area?"

"Yes. It's the obvious ship for transporting the presidents, but I don't see how those Lobstermen can hope to reach it. Dujardin heard them heading up towards the bow, and if they did go that way then there's no way up through the ship that doesn't involve them going through you two. I suggest that you sit tight and hold your position."

There was a laugh from Dujardin, and Samsenko turned to see that he was holding his Vibroblade.

"That's not going to happen Colonel. That's just not going to happen." He ducked round the bulkhead and started walking towards the bow. Samsenko had no choice but to follow him.

"Louis, what are you doing?"

"I've had enough of chasing these bastards, let's finish them off!"

"Don't be an idiot! You're just going to walk in on six of them?" Samsenko grabbed his shoulder and when he kept walking she slammed him against the wall. In return he grabbed her by the throat.

"Officers! Control yourselves!" Sharpe's voice stopped Samsenko from taking a swing at the Commander. "There's only one more bulkhead before you get to the front of the ship! They've probably heard you already, do you want them to find you fighting?"

Dujardin let go, seemingly shaken back into his senses.

"Let's go, slowly," he said gruffly. They crept up to the next bulkhead and Dujardin peered round.

The two ledges joined as the bilge deck tapered into a point, marking the bow of the ship. The six Lobstermen were all on this far ledge, sonic cannons at the ready. For a moment Dujardin thought there was a Calcinite among them, but then realized that they had just clad the Mexican president in one of the species' yellow diving suits. It seemed that the Lobstermen either weren't aware of them, or were waiting until they attacked before opening fire.

"Why have they got the president in a diving suit?" Samsenko was watching through her fibre optic screen.

"Maybe they're going to try and smuggle him out through the bilge water," said Sharpe. "I'll get Richter to find the bilge pump controls and drain the deck, that'll put the wind up them."

"Whatever," snarled Dujardin, raising his Vibroblade, "as soon as one of them comes past this bulkhead I'm turning him into sushi."

"Hold it Commander." One of the Lobstermen took out what looked like a small computer and began fiddling with it. "What's he doing?"

She was answered by a huge explosion which almost blew the cruise liner out of the water. It seemed to come from the other end of the bilge deck, and Dujardin and Samsenko were both knocked over by the blast. Then a second explosion, even bigger than the first, sent a wave of bilge flooding towards them. They just managed to activate their diving helmets before they were swamped by the foul smelling liquid, which soon drained away as the ship began to tilt sternwards.

"They're scuttling the ship!" Samsenko yelled into the radio. "Hunter team, get on the Tritons and get the hell out of there!" As the ship jerked skywards Dujardin managed to grab hold of the bulkhead, but Samsenko was sent sliding down the slope. She crashed painfully into the next bulkhead down, and saw immediately that the ledge was now too steep for her to get back up to Dujardin, who was almost hanging from the bulkhead as the ship reached the vertical in a matter of seconds.

"The ship has been blown clean in half," Sharpe informed them. "The second explosion has only accelerated the sinking of your half, the bow is just about to go under." Samsenko felt a twinge run up her left arm, and just as she was about to try and get up a jet of water came bursting up past her as the sea began filling the bilge deck. Ahead of her the water was soon up past Dujardin, who immediately floated into an attacking stance, Vibroblade at the ready.

Samsenko started swimming up towards him, but the Lobstermen beat her to it. All six of them came swimming down past the bulkhead and Dujardin leapt straight out, catching the one carrying the president on the hind leg. The creature swung its spare claw at Dujardin as its leg was ripped from its socket, so he had that off as well, and the other one, leaving the creature virtually limbless as he started swinging around, disarming two of the Lobstermen who were preparing to open fire on him and managing to duck a shot from the fourth. In the melee he seemed to have forgotten that his first kill had been carrying the president in his claw, and the limp body was now falling down towards Samsenko, with two of the Lobstermen diving after it.

She opened fire and scored two direct hits, but they didn't even slow the creatures down and she had to grab the president before he floated past her. She managed to get a shot off into the head of one of the Lobstermen before they were on her, and she dropped her cannon in favour of her Vibroblade.

One of them shot her in the stomach at point blank range. Her armour held, but the blast sent her crashing against the wall and she could feel herself bleeding under her chest plate. She dropped the president against the bulkhead and pushed herself off the bulkhead, catching the foremost Lobsterman by surprise as she decapitated him with her Vibroblade. However this left an opening for the second one, who grabbed the president and started swimming down towards what had been the stern of the ship.

Samsenko was about to follow him down when she looked up to check on Dujardin, who was still fighting on against four Lobstermen. Two of them were now pretty much limbless, and all four of them had lost their sonic weapons, but one of them was wrestling with the Commander as the other hacked away at his armour with its claws.

Samsenko couldn't believe that Dujardin was trying to outmuscle the brutish creatures and tried to grab a sonic cannon that was falling past her, but it was just out of reach. Then she had to watch as the second Lobsterman ripped Dujardin's helmet from his armour as the first one managed to wrestle the Vibroblade from him. Still swimming up, she was helpless as her Commander's head was torn in half by the lobster claws and his torso removed from his legs by the Vibroblade.

The already dirty water was now red with blood, which provided Samsenko with a grisly shroud as she dived at the aliens, taking off the head of the first with her own blade before driving it deep into the chest of the second one. By the time her bloodlust had cleared she had executed to two helpless ones with no limbs as well. She tried to avoid looking at the three pieces of Dujardin that were floating in the water, but couldn't help herself being sick over the inside of her helment.

"Lieutenant Samsenko, Lieutenant Samsenko," Sharpe's voice was the first thing she heard as her ears started working again. "You've got to get after the president, get after them now!" Samsenko took a deep breath and opened and closed her helmet to wash away the vomit. Then she deactivated her ballast pack, the technique the aquanauts used so that they could walk almost normally on the sea bed, and fell like a stone down the length of the sinking ship.

The lower end of the ship was crushed into the sea bed and the lone kidnapper wasn't even looking up as it tried to rip his way out. Chunks of metal were flying behind it as Samsenko landed and swung her Vibroblade at its head. The creature had just dislodged the last piece of hull between it and the open sea, and this fell away along with its headless body as it slumped to the floor. Samsenko looked up at the opening and saw anther Lobsterman holding a sonic rifle.

It blasted her square in the chest as she flailed the Vibroblade, sending her flying back through the water, then shot her again, this time hitting her left leg. Samsenko was sent spinning into the ground, landing only a few feet from the president, and she could feel her energy slipping away.

A burst of it came flooding back when she spotted a sonic rifle half buried in the sand beside her. She rolled out of the way of another shot and grabbed the gun, still with a Lobsterman's claw attached, swinging it up and unloading the rest of the magazine into her assailant's head.

She thanked her lucky stars as he went down, only for two more to appear behind him. She leapt for the decapitated Lobsterman as sonic flashed past her, using its bulk to absorb two more shots. However the third passed straight through it and hit her armour somewhere around her stomach. Her armour split and she thought she felt seawater against her skin, although it was more likely to be blood.

However now she had reached down to grab her Vibroblade and leapt at the nearest Lobsterman, knocking its cannon out of its hand. Its partner read her moves and tore at her neck with its claws. This time she really could feel seawater as her armoured collar was ripped off, and her helmet started to fill.

She plunged her Vibroblade deep into the second Lobsterman's chest, but then the water surged up past her mouth and she started to choke, leaving her helpless as the first Lobsterman smashed its claws into her solar plexus, sending her to her knees, just able to make out the orange blur as it raised its cannon to her head.

The blast of sonic came, but her vision didn't go. Instead the Lobsterman disappeared from view, and blurry blue shapes, looking a lot like an aquanaut, moved across her vision…


	6. Chapter 6: Epilogue

Chapter 6: Epilogue

It was three days before Samsenko woke up. She had vague recollections of being on a ward – and of Meyer being in the bed next to her – but by the time she had fully regained her senses there was no one else in her room's ten other beds. Zhadanovich and Faustaus were standing by her feet.

"How are you feeling Lieutenant?" the admiral asked.

"Where am I?" was her first question. "What happened to the president?" was her second.

"He's fine," said Faustaus, "it took us a while to work out how to revive him from the alien stasis, but he's back at NAFTA as we speak convincing the Americans not to pull their funding." Samsenko forced a smile.

"Mission successful then."

"Half successful. From a political point of view," Zhadanovich looked grim, "as for the XCOM point of view, we took a big hit, and not just to Dujardin."

Samsenko hadn't remembered what had happened to the Commander, and as soon as she did so she was violently sick into a kidney dish. The two men waited for her to compose herself.

"How did I get out? The last thing I remember is drowning."

"The hunter team managed to get aboard Triton Four before the ship went under. They detected the landed alien Hunter on the sea bed, waiting for you. Sharpe told them to try and find a way into the ship and they did, just in time. I'm told Pantenella had to give you mouth to mouth in the Triton."

"Really," Samsenko wiped her mouth without thinking, "how's Meyer. More to the point how's everyone?"

"No one who went on that mission is a hundred per cent," said Faustaus. "Richter needed skin grafts on his arm and wouldn't be able to hold a weapon for a fortnight, if he did what we told him. Meyer was down here with you but he's okay, just a little concussed. One of your men was killed on the hunter team, the other five all have minor injuries of some kind…"

"In a word, it was a disaster," said Zhadanovich. "We lost our two most experienced officers in one mission. Our next most experienced is out for two weeks minimum and we lost nine Able Seamen, meaning that Bravo Squad now only has four personnel with any combat experience."

"Nice way of telling me I'm out for two weeks," Samsenko tried to move her feet, but couldn't. "What's wrong with me, and where the hell am I?" she asked Faustaus.

"Well Lieutenant, you have the following: brain trauma caused by oxygen deprivation, four broken ribs, distension of the small intestine, fractured femur, dislocated collarbone and the shot that ruptured your armour almost shattered your spine, meaning you'll be in a wheelchair for at least a week while your nerves regenerate." Samsenko glared at him. "Oh, and you're in ward two of the BASE HOTEL infirmary."

Like almost all of the XCOM personnel, with the possible exception of Richter, Samsenko had been itching to find out where the secret research base was located. It turned out that it was in the Ross Sea off Antarctica, and probably wouldn't stay secret for very long because it was tethered to the mainland. Lessons from the first alien war had taught that aliens only attacked XCOM bases if strike and intercept craft originated from them, so Zhadanovich and co. were banking on the pure research base not being bothered.

After spending two days at BASE HOTEL Samsenko wanted to be stationed there permanently. Compared to the tight, defence-minded confines of MED ALPHA and YELLOW BRAVO it was a paradise. There was still an airlock between the single sub pen (which also had a workshop module attached which was solely dedicated to making aircraft parts) and the rest of the base, and it was still the only way in and out. However there was also a gangway from the airlock roof over to the icy mainland, meaning the base personnel were allowed onto the shore for leave, which usually involved racing around on snowmobiles.

The first modules joined onto the airlock were two workshop modules and then the laboratory and alien containment modules, all joined with a storage module for easy access. There were three quarters modules, one for the scientists, one for the technicians and one for any injured aquanauts, which also housed the luxurious infirmary that made the medical facilities on the other bases look shameful. A transmission resolver was tucked away at the back of the base, though it was only used for defence and rarely picked up anything so near to the poles.

Samsenko had soon mastered her wheelchair and was whizzing around the base almost as quickly as Colonel Sharpe. After meeting in the mess hall Zhadanovich suggested they headed over to the Sub Pen to meet Dr Faustaus.

They found the doctor on the gantry overlooking the Sub Pen. Down below, nestled amongst its supporting structures and construction robots sat an aquamarine sub of obviously alien origins. It was about the same size as a USO Escort, far shorter than a Barracuda craft.

"Say hello to the Manta," grinned Faustaus, "it's our first submarine based on alien technologies. It's got magnetic navigation, ion beam accelerators, the works. Two of these babies will be able to take on a Dreadnought with little chance of being destroyed."

"Have you flown it yet?" asked Samsenko."

"Only at 50% power. Even then it can outrun a Barracuda or a small USO without issues. It's powered by Zrbite, which has the same drawbacks as Elerium fuels, but the speed of the thing means range will be even less of a problem than with the First War Firestorms."

"These things are going to be the key to the next phase of our counter-attack," said Zhadanovich. Recently he had started using the term 'counter-attack' instead of 'defence'. "We've secretly been constructing the remaining bases in our world wide sea net and all five are nearly ready for intercept duty. We'll ship Mantas out to them as soon as they're ready, one per base at first, then two once the first seven have been completed. Then once the quarter modules have been completed each base will have its own squad, responsible for assaulting and defending in its own area."

"Sounds pretty heavy. And expensive."

"It will be," smiled the Admiral, "but we've come up with a new tactic for raising funds. We've been sending the Barracudas out shadowing the alien supply ships and have discovered that they're all restocking alien colonies hidden deep throughout the world's oceans, obviously acting as breeding grounds and staging posts for surface attacks. So far we've detected seven, and the number is increasing all the time.

"Shit, we'd better get on with destroying them."

"What and risk all that MC activity?" smiled Faustaus, "from what we can tell the colonies need to be re-supplied every twenty-four hours. When the Mantas are up and running we'll be able to blow every supply ship out of the water with the minimum of fuss, and what we sell from a supply ship Recovery will make us more money in a day than the sponsor nations give us in a month. Pretty soon XCOM is going to be entirely self-sufficient."

"And there'll be no more wasting time going after small fry," said Zhadanovich, "anything smaller than a supply ship we'll blast out of the water until there's nothing for the aliens or us to bother salvaging. Aquanaut deployment will be reserved for large ship assaults, surface attacks and alien installation assaults."

"Good," said Samsenko, "no more of my best men getting grenaded by the last Gillman on a scout ship. Can we really cover the whole Earth with seven assault bases?"

"Of course," said Zhadanovich, "size wise only the Atlantic and Pacific hold any coverage problems. To combat this we'll place the bases at choke points, stopping the USOs slipping into or out of the main body of water undetected."

"Where will the bases be located?"

"Well with hindsight MED ALPHA isn't really ideally positioned, but we figure it'll be very useful in covering USOs over-flying Asia, they seem to be taking that route to outrun our flying subs, but the Manta's speed should put paid to that. YELLOW BRAVO will continue to monitor the Sea of Japan/South China Sea area, with particular focus on blocking the passage between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. GULF CHARLIE will be positioned to allow coverage of the whole of the North American continent, including the western seaboard. INDI DELTA will cover the Indian Ocean and probably be the major force in the Southern Ocean if needed; ATLANTIC ECHO will take the south and central Atlantic, with ALPHA and CHARLIE splitting the far north. FIJI FOXTROT will cover the South Pacific, and BERING GOLF will be placed in the Bering Straits, allowing coverage of both the North Pacific and the Arctic Ocean. GOLF, FOXTROT, BRAVO and CHARLIE will form the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'."

"And the 'Atlantic Crucifix' will be ALPHA, CHARLIE, GOLF and ECHO," suggested Samsenko. "How will the bases be crewed?"

"Minimum garrison of fourteen Ables, with a shifting number of Seamen and cadets gaining experience and transferring between bases until they find a berth as an Able. All will be the same layout as BRAVO, although we'll just have to get ALPHA as close as we can, so no labs or workshops."

"Nice and spacious then?"

"No, but there will be ample opportunities for shore leave here on HOTEL," smiled Zhadanovich. "By the way, while you were out cold we've made a few changes to the ranking system."

"Oh?"

"Yes. We plan for each base to be controlled by a Commander with a Lieutenant as their deputy. As GULF CHARLIE will be fully operational around your point of recovery, I'm promoting you immediately. We had been given permission to promote one person to the rank of Captain, effectively the senior officer for all of XCOM, however due to your current condition…" Zhadanovich shuffled.

"I understand. If Richter got the job, that's fine by me."

"I'm glad to hear it. Commander Samsenko."

The three of them began to move down the gantry, which took them all the way around the Sub Pen.

"There might be a shortage of suitable candidates if the bases will be online that quickly."

"We're not rushing into things," said Zhadnovich. "As well as yourself and Richter we've promoted Lieutenant Brehme, she will command Alpha Squad. Other than you three we're not about to promote anyone else directly to Commander, although everyone who survived the presidential mission is now an officer. At the moment we are looking at Lieutenant Pantenella controlling INDI DELTA and Lieutenant Meyer taking ATLANTIC ECHO, both will remain at that rank until they have proved themselves as combat leaders. FOXTROT and GOLF should be completed far enough in the future for us to have plenty of candidates."

"Do you have a deputy for me yet?"

"Not a Lieutenant, no. Ensign Tom Tarantino will join you from Alpha Squad as the second officer for the first few missions. I'm sure he will earn his promotion in short order, and your Ensigns can be drawn from the most outstanding of the new recruits."

"Sounds very cosy," said Samsenko, looking down at the Manta as its ion accelerators started to whir. If this all came true, if the web of bases really was wide enough to trap the aliens in their colonies, then there was hope. For the first time, deep down in her soul, Samsenko felt she was fighting a war that she had a decent chance of winning.


End file.
